Unexpected
by S.V Random
Summary: Sometimes absent fathers leave you surprises... like second families. With danger closing in Kagome learns of her half brother, and possibly the only place she has left to hide, but will a nosy fox solve this puzzle and expose the secret she's keeping?
1. Dangerous encounter

Another argument, or rather another repetition of the same argument. The same argument they had been having for weeks now, since before she had even come home, and the fights had continued every day since.

Kagome sighed as she fell on her bed, her eyes closed long before she hit the pillow as she dreamed of unconsciousness. Why did it always have to take so much energy to fight with Inuyasha anyway? Whenever she argued with Sota it wasn't this exhausting, but arguments with Inuyasha just seemed to go on forever, and there was really no way to get away from him. Today she had only managed to end the fight because her mother and grandfather had taken pity on her and practically forced the half demon away, saying that it was late, and Kagome needed her rest for school the next day. The tapping at her window told her that their ploy hadn't worked.

Attempting to ignore it she remained where she was, her head relaxed against the pillow as she tried to force the tension out of her shoulders and pretend that she was asleep, hoping he would stop that annoying knocking on the glass of her locked window. She hadn't locked it in ages, not since she'd known Inuyasha, since he often liked to come in through the window, but after the past week of arguing this wasn't the first nighttime visit she'd gotten, and they had all ended at or just after sunrise, leaving her with an awful headache and too groggy to accomplish much. And so the trusty lock at the bottom of the frame had sprung back into action. It was too bad Inuyasha was taking so long to get the clue. Kagome groaned inwardly as he continued, the dreadful rapping of his knuckles growing more insistent on the glass, and ringing almost painfully in her ears against the silence. Was he going to do this all night?

The crash brought her instantly to a sitting position, her eyes wide as she stared at the flying slivers, the tinkling of the broken window pane still echoing in her ears even as the final glittering splinters fell into the carpet. Her shocked eyes rose to the red clad figure marching across them.

"I said we weren't done talking about this, what's the big idea locking me out huh?"

She'd seen him angry, but not like this. Somehow Inuyasha's big golden eyes, those eyes she'd loved not so long ago, had become terrifying. The color was rapidly darkening, gold flecked with red and then after barely a second red flecked with gold until none of the usual coloring was left behind. He stalked purposefully across the space between her bed and the window, ignoring the glass crunching beneath his bare feet in a way that made Kagome cringe. She could hear her mother and grandfather moving in the distance; knew that he could too. "I…Inuyasha… what are you… what's gotten in to you?" She demanded sharply, wanting to stand, but worried of stepping on any of the clear daggers now strewn across her bedroom floor.

"I'm done fighting with you Kagome… just give me the damn jewel and I'll go get the last shard from Kohaku myself."

"Kohaku needs that shard." She found herself climbing to her knees to be closer to eye level with him.

"Yeah, well so do I!" He stormed forward, his volume rising dangerously. "It's been nearly a month since we killed Naraku. You promised you'd give me the jewel, that you'd let me make my wish. And now you won't… I did all the work."

"Inuyasha…" She stared at him wide eyed. She couldn't remember ever actually promising him that she would give him the jewel, but that had been the implied understanding. She'd thought he would come up with a good wish, with _the_ wish that would make the jewel disappear at last. She'd thought he'd changed his mind. She hadn't expected the two wishes he'd come up with, and neither was a very desirable option for her. The first had of course been for him to become a full demon, something he'd been clinging to without telling them while they had all suspected that he'd moved on from that particular dream. The second… the second had been even worse, if you were Kagome anyway.

He wanted to bring Kikyo back to life as a human, like she was before she died. At first it hadn't seemed like such a bad idea, not really, but then Kaede had explained what would happen. Kagome was Kikyo's reincarnation, and if they brought Kikyo back like she was she would get back what she did not have of her soul, which meant that Kagome would lose what she had of her soul. Which was a way of saying that she would die, and pretty much cease to exist. However much she wanted Inuyasha to be happy Kagome wasn't really willing to die for it… not yet anyway.

She blinked out of her thoughts in time to see a hand coming toward her. A scream hardly tumbling from her lips Kagome threw herself to the side, rolling off the side of the bed and landing painfully on her shoulder. Groaning she pushed herself up from the ground, her eyes temporarily narrowed with the pain that still shot down her arm. "Inuyasha what are you doing?" She demanded sharply, rubbing at her shoulder. Her wide eyes slid across the bed, taking in the deep claw marks cutting across the blankets and into the mattress. "Look what you did!"

Her shoulder screamed in pain as he pushed against it, throwing her backwards and pinning both of her shoulders between his hands and the wall. She bit down a screech of pain, forced her eyes up into his still crimson eyes. "The Jewel… now." His voice was soft, nearly a growl coming from his snarling face that loomed only inches from hers.

"Inuyasha… let go… you're hurting me." She struggled weakly against his hands, the pain shooting through her injured shoulder as he pushed harder against it.

"When you give me the jewel."

"You know I can't do that."

"What's going on in here?" The voice of her younger brother cut through the tense silence stretching through the room. "Inuyasha? I thought you went home?"

"Sota… get out of here." Kagome gasped as he pressed harder against her, she could almost feel her bones snapping and a groan escaped her.

"Sis… are you alright?"

"Sota… go now." She felt herself crumbling as Inuyasha pushed away, leaving another stab of pain to shoot down her arm with the force of it. Panic shot through her as she watched him walk toward her younger brother who was busily rubbing at his eye.

"Hey, what happened to the window?"

"Sota!" She pushed helplessly with her working arm to find her feet, only managed to with the help of her damaged mattress.

"Kagome… Kagome what's the matter?" Her mother and Grandfather were within steps of her door now, their voice floating in through the open door moments before they appeared behind Sota.

She stared up at Inuyasha as he walked toward them, his shoulders hunched slightly, and his hands tense at his sides, the fingers separated to inflict the maximum amount of damage when he hit. Fear froze her for less than an instant before forcing her to take action. Her body moved on its own accord, sent her flying forward. She didn't know what was going to happen until it did. The ball of white energy pooled in her palm before expanding outward, keeping her hand from actually touching his leg.

The light exploded away from him, sent the half demon flying off to the side and away from her. "Get away." She grumbled, falling toward the ground.

"Sis!" Sota leapt over the fallen half demon and ran to her side, "What's wrong with Inuyasha?"

"I… I don't know." She gave up telling him to leave as the boy put his arm around her shoulders, helped her sit up fully. Hopelessly she fixed her eyes on Inuyasha who was growling softly as he pushed himself to his feet. Nearly holding her breath she met his eyes, barely noticing that the golden color had returned. "I think it's time you left Inuyasha."She murmured, hoping that she sounded more threatening than she felt.

_I normally hate author notes, which is why none of my other stories have them, but this is a special case. Before anyone gets super angry with me just know that there is a reason Inuyasha is acting this way that will be explained later. I know that I hate when characters are written in a way that seems completely off base for them, so just be patient with me... okay?_


	2. First meeting

"Well, it looks like you and Inuyasha need a little time apart from each other." Her mother's kind tone didn't hide the concern in her eyes, and Kagome felt a pang of guilt at the look in the woman's soft eyes. She had thought it would be better now, now that Naraku was dead and the jewel was in her hands. She hadn't ever thought that Inuyasha could turn on her like that… not again.

"Yeah, but…"

"Kagome, I told you when he first arrived that that demon was trouble. You should never have had anything to do with him."

"Yeah… thanks Gramps." So he claimed. For quite some time now her grandfather had been pretty used to having Inuyasha around, and had at least seemed to like him. As for saying he was trouble, all he'd managed to do was place a useless seal on the well and insist that he would protect her, on top of that all he'd managed to do was throw another useless sutra at Inuyasha, and scream something about banishing evil demons.

"Well you should have listened to me. Now we see his true colors."

"Gramps…" It was still her first instinct to jump to his defense, for some reason she just couldn't help herself, but Kagome bit on her tongue to keep them in, but the words continued to spill out of her, "He was just… upset… and got a little carried away… it's not like he would have actually hurt Sota, or any of you." She hoped. That look in his eyes earlier had been… terrifying, but she knew Inuyasha… he wouldn't hurt a kid or anyone that didn't deserve it.

"He hurt you." She thought the words just as Sota swung into the doorway to say them, revealing his hiding place and that he had been eavesdropping the entire time. Kagome glanced past her mother's back to stare at her younger brother. She'd never seen that look on her younger brother's face. Sota's eyes were practically glowing with anger, his mouth tense like he was clenching his jaw. She could see his small hands were curled into fists at his sides.

"Sota…" She didn't have a chance to say anything else before her mother stood and walked to the doorway. Whatever the woman said was too quiet for her to hear, but after a few moments her brother nodded and walked away leaving them to finish the discussion in private.

"He'll be all right, he's just a little upset." She offered a small smile as she sank into the chair she'd vacated moments before and turned back to the conversation. "Now as I was saying it seems you and Inuyasha should take a break Kagome, just until he calms down."

"But I can't make him stay away! Every time I tell him not to come back he won't listen." She crossed her arms and leaned back in the chair, wondering why they were trying to make this sound like she'd brought it upon herself.

"Then we'll seal up the well again."

"Gramps that didn't work the first time, do you honestly think it'll do any good now?" She sighed, "I'll just have to talk to him about it or something."

"Absolutely not."

"What?" Her mother had never used that tone, she was always soft spoken, patient, she never snapped, never spoke very harshly to any of them, and she especially never said no. Kagome stared at her in shock for a long moment.

"Kagome…" With a soft sigh her mother turned to her, "After last night I don't think you speaking with Inuyasha alone is the best of ideas."

"Then what am I supposed to do? He's going to keep coming back after all."

"Then you'll just have to go stay somewhere safe for a few days."

"More like a few months." He wasn't going to cool down that quickly, particularly not about this stupid jewel and his stupid wishes for it.

"Then if that's what it takes."

"Mom, I can't just go stay at a friend's house for a few months."

"I know dear." There was a slightly pained look on her mother's face, a look that made Kagome want to run instantly to her side, "I didn't want to tell you this… not until you and Sota were older at least, but…"

"You didn't want to tell us what?"

"I didn't want you to think badly of your father you understand, all I ever wanted was for you to love him, he was your father after all."

"Mom, what are you talking about?" Why wouldn't she love her father? What could he have possibly done that was so bad?

"You have to understand… it wasn't… oh Kagome I don't even know how to tell you this."

"Oh, come on Yusuke, you remember her…"

"If I did wouldn't I say something about it?" His voice was loud, even coming from the other room. Leaning against the wall Kurama did his best to keep from eavesdropping, but with the volume they were speaking at it was nearly impossible. He ignored Hiei's questioning look, leaving it to the blue haired Botan to explain the situation to the annoyed red-eyed demon that had just entered through the open balcony door.

"What is taking so long?" Hiei demanded sharply, his annoyed glance sliding over the mostly closed bedroom door.

"Oh, just some family things. Yusuke just found out he has a sister… well a half sister, and his mother has arranged for her to come visit." Botan smiled in a way that she found only gossip could put on her face, "Things are going to get interesting around here for a while."

"He wasn't aware he had a sister?"

"Apparently not." Botan sighed, "I'm afraid this may take a while."

"Mom! I don't even know her name."

"Ka… something. She'll be here soon you can ask her what her name is then."

"That's nice, but I've got plans."

"There's something more important than meeting your only sister? What kind of kid are you?"

"I guess I take after my mother."

"Yeah whatever, look I've got places to go. Watch the house while I'm gone Yusuke." They heard Yusuke stammer a little before a distant door opened and closed loudly.

"Well this is just GREAT!" He punched the door half-heartedly to open it, looked at them like he'd forgotten they were there in the first place, "Sorry, guys I got caught up." Grumbling to himself he made his way across the room, searching through his random belongings, trying to find the compass Botan had given him. The knock at the door earned only a groan from him, grumbling Yusuke glanced over his shoulder, "One of you get that, I'm kind of busy."

Sighing Kagome adjusted the backpack strap digging into her shoulder and dropped the suitcase in her hand. She nervously rechecked the address against the one her mother had written on the slip of paper in her hand, her nerves finally pushing through the shock she'd been living in for the last week. It was still almost impossible to believe what she'd heard in the kitchen of her family's home only a week before. Her father had had a second family, she had a brother she'd never heard about. Everything had happened so quickly, her grandfather had surrounded the house with his sutras, attempted to seal off the well, not that it had done any good after all, she'd seen Inuyasha return, but due to the seals she'd obtained from Miroku and secretly used to replace her grandfather's had kept him from entering the house, but it was the news that her mother had come home with. She was not only meeting her newly found brother, she was going to live with him and his mother for the next few months. She hadn't wanted to, but she'd agreed to come, understanding her mother's reasons for wanting her away from the shrine for a while. It wasn't like she'd never been away from home for that long before after all, the only difference was that now she wasn't going to be wondering around a different time period fighting with demons, she would be in another city, going to a new school, and hoping that she could get home soon.

But apparently she hadn't been the only one to have troubles lately, apparently her brother's family wasn't long out of a hard patch themselves, several accidents, including one that they had thought had been fatal, but her brother's mother, Atsuko, had been happy to have her come. And while leaving home wasn't easy Kagome was sort of glad to find a chance to settle into a relatively normal life far away from time traveling through mysterious wells with short-tempered demons and without the harassment of that same temperamental half demon.

"And all of this over you." She murmured under her breath, examining the nearly complete jewel hanging from the keychain in her hand. No one in the modern era was searching for the jewel, but she didn't want it to seem special and draw anyone's attention to it. She wanted the jewel to seem like only a copy, a trinket that was only sentimentally important. Still as the door began to open she stuffed the keychain back into her pocket and looked up into a pair of bright green eyes framed by shockingly red hair. "Oh… um…" She mentally kicked and scolded herself for having not spent more time thinking of what to say when she got here, "I'm looking for Atsuko Urameshi…"

Something inside of Kurama shivered away from her, sending an uncomfortable shudder through him, but even as he examined her he couldn't see anything that should have caused it. She seemed like any other girl really, black hair that hung down to her shoulders, big brown eyes in a pale face, eyes that met his shyly, full of uncertainty and what appeared to be the faintest traces of fear.

"Um… I'm sorry to bother you… could you maybe tell me which apartment it is, it looks like my mother gave me the wrong address."

He shook himself inwardly and offered an apologetic half smile, " Forgive me, she gave you the right address, I was… thinking." He stepped to one side, "Please come in." He closed the door quietly behind her and turned back into the room.

"Are you…?"

"I'm a friend of Yusuke's, he's otherwise occupied at the moment." Kurama reached for the suitcase she carried, "Allow me." He avoided flinching as his fingers brushed hers and something close to a strong static shock just short of jamming his finger into an electrical socket and instantly found himself frozen. Instinctively his power rose to counter the threat that was coming. He glanced from his hand to her slightly narrowed eyes, and smiled again, "Static." He murmured and turned away leading her down the hall toward Yusuke's room. There was definitely something odd about this girl, he just wasn't quite certain what yet.

"Hey, where the hell did you go Kur…" Yusuke froze outside his door, his coat only on one shoulder as he stretched. "What the…"

"Yusuke, I believe this is your sister." Kurama moved slightly to the side, expecting to see a warm family moment, and instead only witnessed feigned disinterest and nervous eye shifting.

So far this was going great. Sighing inwardly Kagome swallowed on her nerves and moved forward a little, holding out her hand, "Hi… I'm Kagome." Her hand trembled a little in the air for a long moment before she gave up and dropped it back to her side, absently smoothed the side of the sweater she wore over her favorite yellow sundress, dropped her eyes nervously to the ground, almost afraid of meeting his as he watched her coldly.

"Oh… come on Yusuke say hello. She seems absolutely delightful." A young woman with blue hair rushed past him through the doorway and caught her hand in a way that made Kagome cringe just a little, and despite her attempts to pull away simply wouldn't release her, "Hello, I'm Botan, it's so nice to meet you. Forgive Yusuke, he's only just found out about you, but he's really pretty nice once you get to know him."

"Botan!" Yusuke sighed and turned away, "We don't have time for this right now."

Well, it looked like this was going to take a while, if she ever managed to get on his good side at all, "I'm sorry, I guess I came at a bad time." Snapping at him wasn't going to do her any good, and Kagome really wanted this to work out well. She was still only adjusting to the idea of having another brother, and she wanted to get along with him, "It was nice to meet you Yusuke, is Atsuko…"

"She's gone, probably won't be back for a while." He interrupted, looking away and back again, rolling his eyes like he was annoyed, "Look, I don't have time to give you a tour, this is my room, yours is that way," He gestured over his shoulder, and when he looked back was mildly surprised to find her meeting his eyes squarely for the first time.

"I wouldn't want to keep you from something important." Disinterest was the best way to handle this, if she tried too hard she wouldn't get anywhere, "I'll just show myself around… if you don't mind that is?"

"Sure, whatever you want." She refused to move as he came toward her, forcing Yusuke to sidestep and go around her rather than step out of his way, mentally screaming at herself to stand her ground rather than give in to her instinct and move out of his path. She was happy to step aside for the girl he'd called Botan, and found herself returning her smile despite herself. She turned back, her eyes searching for the suitcase only to find it in the hands of the red head who had answered the door.

"You'd better hurry, or they'll leave you behind." She reached for the case, but he was already walking down the hall.

"I won't be that far behind." He pushed the door at the end of the hall open, turned back to smile at her, "You handled that very well."

"oh… thanks." She took a hold of the handle, avoiding his eyes as she did so, "I'm sorry… I didn't hear your name."

"Shuichi," He bowed his head slightly, then turned and started down the hallway, "It was nice to meet you Kagome."

"You too."

He stopped at the front entrance and turned back with a small smile, "Don't worry about Yusuke, I'm sure he'll warm up to you soon enough."


	3. Initial impressions

She stood for a long moment watching the closed door after he'd walked out of it, her hand still tingling from the odd shock she'd received when his hand brushed against hers, some small level of shock returning to her suddenly dazed mind. It was impossible, but Kagome could have sworn that she'd sensed a demonic aura, possibly two very close, but they were gone now with no trace left behind.

Shaking her head violently to clear the thoughts Kagome turned back into the room she'd been given, her hand tunneling into her pocket so her fingers could run across the smooth part of the jewel until she found the missing piece.

Only one shard before it was completely whole again, but she knew the location of it this time, knew that it was safe, and so she was glad to let Kohaku keep that shard until he was strong enough to live without it. She could tell something was going on around this part of town, all she could do was hope she didn't get pulled in to it, that no one noticed the jewel and she would be okay. She turned back, running her hand over the jewel again before dropping it into her pocket and busying herself with unpacking some of her things instead.

"At least there isn't any major damage to anybody, you all just need some rest and you'll be as good as new." Botan smiled around at them all, and only received blank stares back. She sighed.

"Let's just get home." Yusuke glanced at his unconscious friend, trying to ignore the pain in his ankle as he limped forward, "My place is closest, I don't want to carry Kuwabara any further than we have to."

"Oh, and what about your sister?" Hiei asked softly, freezing the group for a moment.

"Yeah… I forgot about that girl." Yusuke paused for a moment, searching the ground for an answer of some sort, "I know. I'll just tell her we got in a fight and… I won."

"You're going to tell her you beat up your own friend? Don't you want her to like you at all Yusuke?" Botan glared gently at him.

"I don't really care if she does or doesn't." He lifted Kuwabara's limp body slightly and started forward again.

"That isn't very nice Yusuke. She's your sister; you should at least try to be a little nice."

"I never wanted a sister Botan. I don't care what she thinks or anything else about her." He flinched away from a blow to the back of his head, turned to glare at the short demon who had hit him, then looked at Botan and Kurama's disapproving gazes. "What was that about?"

"Kurama and Botan are busy trying to carry the oaf. I merely did it for them."

"Thank you Hiei." Botan smiled, and as she expected didn't receive one back as Hiei vanished into the distance.

"You know Yusuke, Botan is right. The girl at least deserves a chance."

"Thanks for the advice, but it's none of your business."

Kurama looked down for a moment, "That's a shame, she seems fairly nice, you may like her more than you think."

"I guess I'll just deal with it when we get there."

She tucked the jewel into the back of a drawer, carefully checking that all of her special belongings were there before covering them with her clothes, but as she prepared to place the socks over them she froze, her eyes sliding sadly over all of them. The stack of Sutras that Miroku had given her, one of Shippo's favorite tops and two of his wooden puzzles. Nestled neatly beside them was one of the knives that Sango normally kept hidden in her sleeve, and a sealed shell containing one of the demon slayers' most powerful and effective poisons, which Sango had spent hours teaching her to handle safely. She didn't cry until she found herself looking at one of the pictures that Shippo had drawn for her before she'd left. Only two weeks since she'd last visited them, and already she missed them so badly it hurt. How long would it be until she saw them again? Would she ever see them again?

She tried to laugh at herself as she moved toward the living room and the kitchen beyond it. She'd been alone here for hours, and just to keep herself busy she'd already unpacked all of her things, and cleaned nearly the entire apartment, just to have something to do. She paused in the doorway for a moment, wondering if leaving the jewel alone in the dresser was a good idea or if she should keep it in on her until she found a safer place for it. As her thoughts turned to it she found herself moving back toward the dresser and withdrawing the jewel from its hiding spot to place it back in her pocket. Kagome was certain that she would eventually feel safe leaving the jewel there, or somewhere else, but for now she felt when it was closer. She was beginning to understand why Kikyo had worn it as a necklace, but that would have left it too exposed, this way people would just think it was a broken trinket on a keychain, and at most wonder why she hadn't thrown it away yet. This was definitely a safer option than Kikyo's had been.

"Kikyo…" The name left her as a whisper as she moved toward the window to stare into the dark sky that stretched over the seemingly endless city lights. Kikyo was still alive… or as alive as she had been all the time Kagome had known her. She'd rejoined Inuyasha after that final fight with Naraku, but she hadn't been there when she'd left the village the last time. She'd thought Kikyo would want the jewel back, so she'd kept it hidden until the woman was gone, because in the weakened state she had been in after the battle Kagome would have been easy to overpower. She'd only begun to realize recently how stupid that was. Kikyo was able to sense the jewel as well, and she had been the original guardian after all. She wasn't sure if she'd been lucky or not. She should have been happy to let Kikyo take the jewel, but for some reason it hadn't seemed right. After so long, when the jewel had been in her hand again it had seemed like a part of her… or something. She still didn't quite understand it herself, and she wasn't going to spend any more time thinking about it.

As she turned her eyes went to the closet and the pile of old coats lying in the corner to hide the bow and quiver of arrows that Kaede had given her some time before. She really didn't want anyone to notice these and the items in her dresser. She'd considered leaving them at home, after all she was much safer in the modern age than in the feudal era, and here she didn't even have to consider using them against Inuyasha, who's daily appearance and demands for the jewel had clearly become far more dangerous for her. However just the idea of leaving behind the tokens from her friends had made her tumble toward a breakdown, and it had seemed like a far better idea to have them with her… just in case. As her thoughts twisted toward the silver haired half demon she felt an odd little pang of guilt coupled with the anger and pain at the idea of what he'd done, and Kagome couldn't help wondering if he was okay. She knew that she couldn't have done much damage to him, even after three weeks she hadn't regained all of the power she'd used while fighting against Naraku, after this unnaturally long stretch of time she shouldn't have felt this drained still, she decided it must have been stress, because the only people she could have asked were currently on the other side of the well, five hundred years and one angry half demon away from her.

At least here she was safe from the dangerous half demon. With all the space between here and the shrine there was really no way he'd be able to sniff her out, and her family wouldn't tell him where she was, if they listened to her they wouldn't speak to him at all. So she would stay here, give him some time to cool down about the jewel and his wishes before she dealt with him again. She'd hated the plan at first, but Kagome couldn't help being grateful of her mother's genius. The next time Inuyasha went looking for her he would find she was gone, and that he couldn't find her.

The snap of a distant door closing brought her back from her thoughts. Sighing a little Kagome turned back toward the hallway, paused when her hand landed on the doorknob to close her eyes and pull in a steadying breath. Someone was back, and while staying barricaded in her new room seemed like an excellent idea it wasn't going to win her any friends among her new extended, somewhat temporary family. It was going to take a lot of effort, but if she was going to live here Kagome didn't want to feel alone. She wanted to have someone that she could at least think of as something close to a friend, or at least have a civil conversation with on a regular basis. She hesitated at the door a moment longer, wondering if she actually did have the energy to do this, then steeling her resolve and fixing a smile onto her face she turned the handle and stepped into the hallway. If there was anything Kagome had gotten good at it was pretending to have more energy than she actually did.

The smile she'd painted into place vanished almost the instant she saw them. Of the five people standing inside the entrance way two weren't bleeding, and only four were standing under their own power. "Oh… What happened?" Instinct and practice took over for her shocked brain, sending Kagome into a ball of hyperactivity and action, she raced across the space between them to take the arm of the most injured, a large boy in blue with coppery red hair, who also happened to be the unconscious one. She barely glance at the blue haired girl who had the other arm around his shoulders as she began issuing orders, "Help me get him to the couch… someone grab the first aid kit, there's one on my dresser."

"Well she certainly takes charge in a crisis." Kurama smiled a little, then noticed the look Yusuke and Hiei were both giving him, each just short of a glare, "I'll go get the medical kit shall I?" He moved past the frozen spirit detective and down the hall into the room that was now hers glanced around as he entered. It appeared that she'd already finished unpacking. The room was neatly organized and he could see a corner of the brown suitcase he'd carried for her through a crack in the closet door. She'd placed a shockingly pink comforter on the top of the bed, and on the nightstand was a picture frame, which he supposed held a photo of her family though he couldn't see the image clearly. His eyes slid slowly to the foot of the bed, where several hand drawn images rested in a messy pile. For a moment he wondered if she had a younger sibling as well. Then his sharp nose detected something oddly familiar in the air, something he knew that he should have known, but couldn't exactly place. Searching for the source of the unusual scents he found his eyes pulled to a wooden dresser along the wall, and a battered white tin box resting alone on the surface.

Rushed voices drew his attention back to the living room, and Kurama shook himself inwardly, gave up on finding the source of whatever scent had distracted him and strolled to the dresser, his hand reaching for the handle when the air itself seemed to protest and low voltage lightning skittered painfully across his skin, causing a quick recoil. For a long second he considered his still stinging hand, then glanced at the box that was standing against the far wall. "That's… odd." He murmured. His hand hadn't been close enough for the first aid kit to have done that, there had to be something else… but what?

He glanced over his shoulder quickly, his decision to search already made in an instant as curiosity won over reason for once.

The drawer slid open almost soundlessly for him, and Kurama ignored a tinge of guilt at invading her privacy as he gently pushed the clothes she'd placed there aside to reveal what she'd hidden underneath. His gaze slid across them slowly, once and then again.

"What is taking you so long? The girl is complaining about needing bandages." Hiei sounded as close to harassed as he had ever heard, he could practically feel the impatience and annoyance rolling off of him. "She is very loud."

"Hiei, come look at this." He glanced over his shoulder to receive an even more annoyed look from the demon who didn't respond immediately to him, but seemed to give up after a moment and walked over with a disinterested look. It didn't last long. "Yes, an odd collection of items for a girl to have hidden in her dresser isn't it?"

"It hardly matters. What damage can a human girl do with some pieces of paper?"

"These sutras are more than that, they aren't the style most shrine keepers and priests make today, and someone took the time to infuse them with a great deal of energy. They seem to be very effective."

"It's nothing to do with us." Hiei turned to the door, his arms crossed for a moment before he began walking. "Just hurry."

"That shell holds a powerful poison," He could smell it even through the tape she'd placed around the shell in an attempt to strengthen its seal. He wondered why she would have it in a container she didn't seem to trust. Wanting someone to share in his curiosity he moved his eyes over the other items. Wooden toys and puzzles wouldn't be of any interest to Hiei, but there was… "There seems to be something strange about this knife, surely you find that intriguing?" Why would she have these things? Where would she even have gotten them?

"Kurama…" Hiei nearly sounded exasperated, drawing Kurama's attention away from the wooden puzzles that had drawn his eyes, they were fairly simply really, if he got his hands on them he could have solved both in less than five minutes… shaking his head he reaching to the side, avoiding putting his hand directly over the sutras as he grabbed the metal handle of the box with his left hand and carefully nudged the clothing back into position with his right ignoring the warning tingles that came from such close proximity to the enhanced papers. Turning from the now closed drawer he made his way quickly to door and stepped back into the hall.

He found them in the living room, Kagome bent over Kuwabara already busy at work assessing his injuries. He was two steps away when she reached over to grab the box from his hand, and he expected that somewhat painful shock to come through again, braced himself for it, only to feel the cool skin of her hand barely brush his before the heavy box was lifted from his fingers. He nearly swallowed, expecting to be questioned about why it had taken so long to retrieve it, and spouted an answer before he could be, "My apologies, I dropped it and several things fell out." He could only hope she wouldn't remember what the contents had looked like, or that it had been juggled enough during her journey to dislocate a few things.

"That's okay… thanks…" She barely heard him at first, but as Kagome opened the lid a strange fact struck her mind. This was the same first aid kit she'd carried in the feudal era, it had gone through a lot worse than being dropped and never once had it just popped open on her, and when she looked at everything it was exactly where it should have been. Either he'd managed to put everything exactly where it was supposed to go or… Kagome disliked the suspicious thoughts now plaguing her mind. What possible reason did he have to lie about something like that? It really made no sense, considering she hadn't even planned on asking what had taken him so long. Forcing her curiosity and unease about it away Kagome forced herself to go back to work. Whatever she might have been occupying her mind with there was a bleeding boy on the couch that clearly needed its attention more.

"There, that should do it." She smiled as she secured the final bandage into place around Yusuke's arm, "Unless I missed anyone?"

"No, thank you Kagome, you've taken very good care of us all." Shuichi was the only one to return her smile so she nodded to acknowledge the words before moving away from the small group, her hand closed so tightly around the handle of her first aid kit the thin metal was starting to hurt her palm.

She'd tried to banish the troublesome thoughts, had tried to ignore that strange suspicion that she never would have experienced before. She normally would have trusted that what he'd said was the truth, but it wasn't… or at least she didn't think it was. As Kagome stepped into her room her eyes quickly ran over the room, taking in every little thing and trying to tell if it was where she'd left it. As far as she could tell nothing had been touched, but she still couldn't shake that eerie feeling that he'd been lying to her… but why would he?

Kagome forced herself to turn back toward the living room and ignore her newest idiotic notion. It was nothing but paranoia. Fixing her smile back into place she moved out into the hall, trying to at least appear cheerful as she fought against those thoughts. It was just because she didn't know them, because she was in a new place with people she didn't really know at all. It wasn't fair of her to be suspicious of them where they probably hadn't done anything wrong. Sighing inwardly she shook her head before coming around the corner to the living room and kitchen. "Um… I made dinner a while ago if anybody's hungry…"

"Actually, we should be going." The redhead stood and gave her a half smile that didn't quite seem to hide the scheming glint in his green eyes. She almost wondered what he was up to, until she saw him glance at Yusuke with a slightly larger smile and throw meaningful glances at the other two, who seemed almost disappointed or annoyed as they stood to follow him to the door, preceded him into the hall of the apartment building before he stopped and turned around, "It was a pleasure to meet you Kagome." The smile he gave her now was closer to a real one, and she found it oddly infectious.

"Oh… it was nice to meet you too Shuichi."

"Guys… come on aren't you going to stay for…"

"Goodnight Yusuke." The door snapped shut a little more loudly than was probably necessary and left silence ringing in its wake. Slowly she chanced a glance at him, only to find Yusuke looking quickly away even as her eyes darted off to the side.

"Um… I don't suppose you want something to eat?"

"Yeah… sure."


	4. A race to common ground

He followed her into the kitchen already determined to dislike miss perfect in every way possible, and murmuring under his breath about such. She'd only been here a few hours and she'd already cleaned, he could still smell the disinfectant, and some of the surfaces glinted just a little too brightly, and now he was finding out that she'd taken it upon herself to make dinner. She'd sure made herself at home fast, he half wondered if she'd searched their rooms too. He wouldn't put it past her. Glaring at her back Yusuke finally glanced past her as she stepped to the side of the door and promptly froze in the middle of a step, nearly throwing himself forward. "I… didn't think we had half of this stuff."

"Oh… well I didn't know what everyone would like so… I kind of made a little bit of… a lot of things." She giggled nervously at the odd look he was giving her, and tried to avoid his eyes, "I hope… that's okay… If you don't like any of this I can make something else."

"Okay?" He spun to look at her now, his eyes wide before he broke into an almost manic grin, and for a moment he looked like he might cry, "Its… fantastic."

"Oh… I'm glad." Kagome couldn't help smiling a little as he moved toward the counter and began scooping random portions of everything onto a plate as he practically floated around the island counter to the table. "I'll just let you eat then… goodnight…" She turned and walked toward her room, not wanting to test the limits of this good mood before it was gone. If she wanted to get along with Yusuke she was going to have to try a little at a time, pushing too hard wasn't going to do her any good.

"Hey…" He looked away as she turned back toward him, "Why don't you… have some with me?" He was beginning to think that he might have been wrong about her, after all she seemed to be trying really hard, and Yusuke was never one to be outdone. If she'd gone to this trouble he was going to make an effort too, whether she wanted him to or not. He wasn't going to sit around feeling like a jerk over her.

"Well I already had some, but… I guess sitting with you couldn't do any harm." She glanced at him for a long moment before moving to sit across from him at the table, leaned forward on her elbows to watch in something between awe and horror as he began shoveling his food down at a speed she'd only seen Inuyasha and Shippo rival. "So… is everything okay?" Though she couldn't understand exactly what he said in response Kagome assumed it was because he didn't stop eating.

Somehow he had hit the jackpot. He hadn't even wanted a sister before, and now he'd won the sister lottery. She cooked, didn't complain about cleaning up, even knew how to patch up his friends when they came home in bad shape, and didn't even ask stupid questions about it. It was almost too good to be true, which meant that he would be coming up to the flaw any time now, but for the moment she was great. Kuwabara was going to kick himself with jealousy, so far his sister was way better than Shizuru. He swallowed a bite and looked over at her, surprised to see her jump as his eyes met hers… funny how they were almost the same brown as his. "So… Ka… Um…"

"It's Kagome." She leaned back with her arms crossed now, her eyes narrowing slightly for a moment before she looked away.

"Yeah… Kagome… look I'm … sorry … I didn't give you the best… welcome… or whatever."

"It's alright, I understand." When he only looked at her Kagome continued, tipping her finger up to her chin thoughtfully, "I don't think I'd be happy to have someone dropped in my house without anyone asking me. I mean all of a sudden you have some stranger standing in front of you who's supposed to be your sibling. It took me a while to get used to the idea too." She smiled suddenly, "It would have been easier to deal with if we'd gotten to meet before this. I think we would have gotten along really well."

"I would have settled for knowing about you. Before today I didn't think I had any brothers or sisters."

"And now you have two."

"Two?" He nearly dropped his fork, but managed to save the food on it at the last moment even as he stared at her.

"Yeah; me and Sota my… I mean _our_ little brother."

"So I have a… we have a little… brother… wow." He'd never had any idea; all he'd ever thought he had to care about was his mom and his friends, but a little brother… that was something he should have known about. Whatever his mother's excuse there was no way it could have been good enough to make up for not telling him that. A sister was one thing, sure you were supposed to look after your sisters, but a brother was someone you could teach useful stuff, like fighting, to and stick up for.

"He wanted to come too, but I think Mom would die if Sota was gone for more than a night or two." She chuckled a little and made her way to the sink for a glass of water. Even after around a month back in the modern era Kagome still found herself ecstatic about indoor plumbing.

"What about you, she doesn't care if you're gone?" He saw her stiffen and after all his experience with talking with Keiko recognized it as a sign that he had said the wrong thing, even if he wasn't sure what it was.

"She minds… I'm just… older than Sota, so…" Kagome turned back, plastering another smile on her face as she fumbled ahead in search of exactly what to say, "Besides it's almost like I'm never home anyway so…" She shrugged and quickly began sipping at her water again, hoping he would find something else to talk about soon.

From the look on her face he'd hit a sore spot, and he wondered if maybe she had a mother like his, or if maybe her mother was just too caught up in the youngest sibling to care about the other, but he didn't say the thoughts out loud, Yusuke knew how much he hated when anyone that wasn't him talked badly about his mother. Instead he stared awkwardly around, searching for a new topic. "Did you… learn first aid in school or something?"

"Some." She was smiling again, a small relieved one, "I have some friends… who… had a tendency to get into… to get pretty scraped up, so I got plenty of practice cleaning them up after."

"Yeah, how do you explain those weird plants in your first aid kit huh?" It had been a large source of entertainment earlier, watching Kurama stare in shock at the random plants she'd been setting off to the side, when she'd named them and exactly what they were used for Yusuke and the others had thought the fox would bite or swallow his own tongue or just fall over from the shock.

"Oh… those… well Gramps likes his home remedies, so he… grows all these herbs around the shrine and tucks them into the first aid kits." For the first time she was glad of her grandfathers obsession with odd antiques, because it made the excuse sound plausible even to her. In reality Kaede had taught her about the herbs, and while they had been traveling some time ago she'd ended up replacing some of her diminishing supplies with whatever happened to be around. She'd just never bothered getting rid of them.

"So you picked it up from your Grandfather, you must be pretty smart." He murmured through a still partly full mouth.

"Oh… I used to help out in the garden… I didn't mean to pick it up, but… hear him talking about them long enough and it tends to stick in your brain I guess." She shrugged, still searching for something new to talk about. She already hated lying to him, but what was she going to tell him, the truth? He'd think she was insane… if he didn't already. "So, what about you, what do you like to do?"

"You know… the usual stuff."

"What's that mean? Video games or something?"

"Or something…" And he was off, explaining the greatness of the various games he played then the fights he'd been in, and when she only watched in interest Yusuke found he couldn't stop. While he couldn't tell her about some of his best fights, he could downgrade them some and still tell her some of the parts. It was nice to have someone who hadn't heard all of his stories to impress after all.

"I should probably get to bed… first day at a new school tomorrow." Kagome yawned as she stood, then smiled back, "Goodnight Yusuke."

"Yeah you're right… goodnight Kagome." He was almost sad to watch her go, but smiled and waved anyway. Somewhere over the last several hours his determination to dislike her had wavered, then vanished entirely. For some reason however he'd looked for a reason to not like her he just couldn't find one. It should have bothered him, but it didn't. He considered getting another plate, but quickly decided against it as he turned toward his bedroom and his eyes began drooping a little. Yusuke yawned to himself as he moved away from the table, glanced at Kuwabara who was snoring loudly on the couch still on his way through the living room. Yusuke entered his room stretching, knocked the door into its frame with his heel, listened to it snap into place.

"Yusuke I've been waiting."

He spun quickly, already gathering his energy into his pointer finger and prepared for a fight. "Kurama?" Sighing he dropped his hand and stared at the red head standing across the room from him, "Man, what are you trying to do give me a heart attack? I thought you left hours ago."

"I wanted a word in private."

"Hey, all you had to do was ask. I was just enjoying some bonding time with my new sister… turns out I've got a younger brother too."

From the way he was beaming about it Yusuke had clearly been won over by the girl. She'd managed that quickly. With how Yusuke was talking earlier he had expected it to take several days at least, but apparently she was more accomplished at making friends than he had imagined. Still, Yusuke shouldn't have given up his position quite so quickly. Perhaps he wasn't the only one with a sympathetic story, while his friend normally hid behind an act that solidified his casting as a delinquent and thug, he had a far softer heart than he let on, after all hadn't the spirit detective attempted to give up his life for Kurama and his mother once? Hadn't he nearly died to save countless others? Hadn't he cried when his teacher had been killed?

There was also the chance that this strange ability was something the siblings shared, like eye color, or their black hair. After all Kagome had won over Yusuke, who in turn had won the trust of several people and demons who would have been happy to kill any other. But Kurama couldn't shake the feeling that it was more than that. "You seem to have changed your opinion of her."

"Yeah… guess I really deserved that smack to the head earlier…" He rubbed the back of his head as if feeling for a nonexistent bump for a moment before his previously shining eyes lost their happy glow and hardened, "Not that I'm not going to give Hiei a piece of my mind over it later." He grumbled as he made his way to his bed, dropped onto the end to cross his arms loosely and lean back against the wall, "What's up?"

"Well, I came to speak with you" This was going to have to be done with a different kind of care now, he'd been prepared to deal with a disinterested or possibly even hostile Yusuke, not one practically eating out of the young woman down the hall's hand, "about Kagome."

"Oh… hey no lecture needed. I already got the message from Hiei that you guys were pretty annoyed with me about all that crap earlier, and I can admit I was wrong, she's pretty cool… for a girl." He stood and smiled, ushering the slightly startled redhead toward the door.

"I'm glad Yusuke, but it isn't quite why I'm here." He wasn't completely sure why he was here either, at first he thought he'd wanted to warn Yusuke about the danger she could have been, why would she have those herbs and that poison in the other room, those strange weapons, but she didn't seem very threatening, and he didn't want something to happen for her if she was handing these things without knowing, but he also couldn't tell his suspicions to Yusuke now, it would be asking for a fist to the face, and frankly however good his intentions were Kurama just didn't feel like being punched at the moment.

"Then why are you here?" Yusuke stopped short of the door and turned with a confused look that quickly moved to an annoyance that was almost anger, "Oh man… you aren't going to start pulling a Kuwabara on me are you? Look… let's just get this out of the way right now. My sister is off limits, you hear?"

He nearly sighed and looked down, "Again, that isn't quite what I meant."

"Then what exactly did you mean?" Yusuke demanded, trying to sound a little less harsh than he wanted to. Getting on Kurama's bad side, while he was sure he would survive it, wasn't exactly on his list of things to do tonight.

Sighing to himself at once again underestimating Yusuke's protective instincts Kurama plunged on, trying to word his statement carefully, "Those herbs she had… some of them can be very dangerous if not used in the right way… and when I was collecting the first aid kit earlier I glimpsed some very… unusual things in her room."

"You searched her room?" Yusuke looked a little shocked at first, though it quickly became anger, "What possible reason did you have for that?"

"I didn't search her room, I just happened across a few things, like a pile of sutras, and a…"

Yusuke burst into only slightly subdued laughter, "Oh man…"

"Yusuke, I don't see what is so funny here?"

"Her family runs a shrine, and her grandpa takes it pretty seriously. That's why she knows all those herbs and stuff, he grows them, and he probably gave her those sutras. I guess he's got something for old stuff like that." His laughter quickly subsiding he looked away, "See whatever you were worried about there was no reason."

For a moment Kurama considered him for a moment, wondering if he should bother telling him about the poison and the knife, of if they were just gifts from her grandfather, that was doubtful, no one would just give a grandchild something like that. Still, it was a good possibility, and he wasn't one to make unfounded accusations, "Oh, still, you should keep your eyes open, just in case of trouble."

Yusuke smiled a little, "Look, I know it's weird just finding out about her after all this time, but if she was in some kind of trouble I'm sure she would have told me. As far as I can tell there's nothing to be worried about. Still, thanks for looking out for us."

That hadn't been quite what he'd meant, but Kurama realized a lost cause and quickly found his way to the door. "Well, I couldn't in good conscience keep my concerns to myself. I'll show myself out, goodnight Yusuke." This was one of those situations that seemed off just a little, and at the moment his best course of action was to just watch for inconsistencies and search for answers quietly on his own. When he knew more he could come up with a better plan, but for now Yusuke wasn't going to be of any use on that front.


	5. Moments

Yusuke woke to the wonderful scent of sizzling breakfast foods, and the far less pleasant sound of two very off key voices singing badly somewhere beyond his room. He couldn't even be sure they were singing the same song as the radio he could barely hear. Groaning a little Yusuke glared at his alarm clock. Six thirty in the morning. No one should ever be happy to be awake at six thirty in the morning. He rolled to the side, burying his head beneath a pillow. Even through the thick padding and the hand he pressed it against his ear with he could hear them, and with a moan he gave up and climbed out of bed and shuffled toward his bedroom door. He paused for a moment that didn't brace him nearly enough for the increasing loudness that came to his ears as he pushed the door open. Apparently Kagome was already making friends, because she and Kuwabara seemed perfectly at ease with each other in his kitchen.

"Do you two have to be so loud so early?" He demanded, throwing them a glare that vanished in an instant the second Kagome turned to him with a surprised squeak and wide eyes. When she smiled he couldn't help returning it.

"Yusuke…" She seemed to skate around the counter separating them, spun in a circle to make her red skirt flare slightly out around her knees, "What do you think? Do I look okay?"

He considered her for a moment, "Well sure I guess… but that's not what the girls at our school wear."

"Oh, well Mom didn't know what school you went to, so she just picked one." Kagome looked down for a moment, "I could always try to transfer again; I mean it isn't like I'm settled in there or anything."

"Nah, if you got out of going where we go you should consider yourself lucky." He hated the idea of the teachers that hated him taking it out on Kagome just because she had the misfortune of being related to him. "You know where your school is?"

"Yeah, I went there before I came here, so I've got everything completely under control." She smiled again and scurried back to the pan Kuwabara was watching nervously.

"I guess you're feeling better." Yusuke sank into a chair and turned to look at the big read head as Kagome pushed him easily out of her way.

"Sure am, good as new." Kuwabara tried to peak over her shoulder as Kagome batted his hand away from several strips of bacon, then pointed silently to the table. Kuwabara made his way to it; following the order simply because his honor code wouldn't let him argue. He leaned across the table to whisper, "Hey Urameshi, why didn't you ever tell me you had a sister?"

"I didn't know until yesterday, and it wasn't any or your business." He shrugged as she handed plates across the counter, then walked over to join them. "You want me to walk you to school so you don't have any trouble?"

"You don't have to, I'm pretty sure I can manage to walk a few blocks on my own." Kagome had gone through far harder trials before after all, but she didn't feel like fighting with him about it… not just yet anyway. She glanced at the clock and began shoveling her food down like it was going to run away, "but… I… better… hurry… or I'll… be late." She choked out between bites and after dropping her dishes in the sink found herself running in search of her backpack.

"Okay… I'll see you after school?"

"Sure, if you get home before midnight tonight." Smiling Kagome paused at the door, "Take some leftovers or something for lunch, or they'll go bad."

"She's more like a mom than a sister…" Kuwabara murmured after the door had closed, staring at it with wide eyes.

"Not really. And her cooking rocks." Yusuke smiled as he began to shovel down his food much as Kagome had moments before, "Face it Kuwabara, I got luckier than you when they started handing out sisters."

"What did you say Urameshi?"

"What… I just meant that…" He found himself flying backward in the chair, jumped to his feet again after colliding with the far wall, "Okay, what the _hell_ was that for?"

"Hey did you see the new girl yet?"

"Sure, I watched her fall on her way into class."

"Well to be honest one of the other girls tripped her."

He attempted to ignore the idle gossip fluttering through the halls as he walked, choosing instead to keep his attention focused on the book in his hand as he wove through the hall and toward his favorite lunch spot and one of the only places where he could have peace, a bench near the back of the school in the shade of several trees and surrounded by ferns that for some reason always grew back when the groundskeeper tried to remove them. Of course Kurama had an idea of why, he had planted the ferns there himself after all, and the bench just seemed to be lacking without them.

As he rounded the corner he looked down to tuck his book into his bag and when he looked up again was frozen as he found his favorite bench already occupied.

She looked oddly peaceful sitting there, her hands resting on the open textbook in her lap and her eyes glued to whatever she held in her cupped palms. She'd pushed up the sleeves of her shirt, wrinkling the fabric, and her backpack rested against her legs that were tucked slightly under the wooden seat. As he watched a light breeze swept over her, ruffling her hair and skirt while it brought her scent to him, something soft and sweet with a slightly tangy after effect that lingered sweetly against his sensitive nose. It was soothing somehow, and he found himself almost wishing for time to stop, at least for a while so he could savor her intoxicating smell. But if she looked over and saw him it would mean coming up with an excellent excuse to keep from looking ridiculous.

Swallowing his disappointment at the moment's end Kurama walked toward her. "Hello Kagome. Yusuke didn't tell me you would be attending school here." He hated that his voice made her jump, but noticed that she quickly closed her hands and hid whatever she'd been looking at in a pocket before looking up with a smile he could see was forced.

"Hello Shuichi." Her smile wavered as he sat beside her, "Yusuke and I didn't know we'd be going to different schools until this morning."

"I see… Yusuke must have been disappointed."

"Actually he said I'd be better off going here than where he goes. He doesn't seem to like his school very much."

"He probably would have liked it more if he attended his classes more often." He murmured, only half of his thoughts focused on what to say next. He was far more interested in what she might have hidden from sight, and why she would want to keep him from seeing it.

"Oh, so Yusuke had a problem with attendance too huh?" She looked down and away, something he couldn't place in her eyes, either guilt or concern, maybe regret. For some reason it bothered him, he was surprised by just how much.

"Is there something wrong Kagome?"

"No… I've just missed a lot of school pretty recently too."

"Why is that?" She'd finally withdrawn her hand from her pocket, and was now busy fiddling with her fingers in her lap. Whatever she'd hidden from him was unprotected. It wouldn't take much, just a slight nudge, maybe a quick pull at the most and whatever had been placed there would easily fall out. He could do it with the fern and she would probably never notice. It would be easy to claim he'd found it on the ground and return whatever it was later, once this bit of his curiosity about her had been satisfied. At last an answer would be found, maybe a small one, but an inconsequential solution was better than none at all, and at the moment all he had about Kagome was a great deal of questions. And unanswered questions were like unsolved puzzles, and unsolved puzzles were a sin even he couldn't endure.

"I was aw… sick." She smiled a little, but he could see that it wasn't real; he could practically smell the lie she was telling even if he hadn't caught the slip she made. Yet another puzzle piece for him to wonder over.

"You're feeling better now though I hope?" He used his energy almost absently, now concentrating on two separate versions of the same question. What was she hiding? There was something Kagome wasn't telling him and something that she was trying to keep him from seeing, and Kurama was dying to know what both of those things were. He felt his energy moving to the fern, and then he felt it stop, as if it had run into a wall of lightning, and the pain of it skittered back across his energy into his body, making his left arm twitch just a little before he could steady himself. He kept his face passive as he looked up to meet her suddenly hardened eyes, taking in the suspicious glint that had sprung to life in her large brown eyes. "Kagome," For some reason his voice wanted to catch, his words were dying to stumble and he nearly stammered, but would not allow himself to. Carefully Kurama pattered his face into one of his more innocent expressions, "Are you alright?" His thoughts were screaming in his head, demanding answers, praying that what he'd thought wasn't what was actually happening. If his suspicions were correct Kagome had somehow sensed his energy and counteracted it with her own. He'd never encountered that sort of thing before, not unless it was just an overwhelming force blocking an already weakened one, but her energy was much lower than his.

"Oh me? I'm fine." She smiled, but she wanted to run away at full speed. There it was, the same energy she'd sensed when they first met, but this time it had been so much stronger. The aura around him seemed human enough, but the energy seemed like a demon's. It was confusing, but it had to come from him… unless there was someone nearby that she didn't know about. She found her eyes searching even though she didn't know what she was looking for.

He saw her stiffen as she stood, noticed how her eyes were dancing from place to place, but it was the slight tinge of fear that bothered him. Perhaps she had noticed the energy, but didn't know where it had come from, or maybe she knew and was trying to look like she was afraid of something else, but why would she do that? "Are you sure? I would hate to think I'd done something to upset you." He smiled, "And Yusuke would be very unhappy with me if I he thought I'd been unkind to his sister."

"Don't worry, I'm fine." She stood quickly and yanked her backpack up, unable to hide her eagerness to be somewhere else, "Besides I don't need Yusuke to stick up for me, if you'd done something I'd be sure to tell you." Kagome offered another fake smile before she turned and began running, "But I'm supposed to meet with my next teacher before class and I'm already late. It was nice to see you." She swung her backpack over her shoulder in a smooth practiced motion, like someone used to having to move quickly.

"That went well." He murmured as she disappeared around the corner, and shook his head. Trying to use his energy near Kagome wasn't going to do any good if he wanted her around long enough to learn anything about her. He was going to have to change his approach. His eyes went quickly to the tree a short distance away from where he sat, "Hiei, I am well aware that you've been here for some time." Perhaps it was Hiei's arrival that had upset her; it had corresponded with his attempt at foliage controlled pocket picking, but then she would have started jumping earlier. He wasn't surprised when the demon appeared beside him, red eyes glued to the corner where she had disappeared for a moment. "What brings you here?" He gave up looking for the answer to that question for now, whatever Hiei didn't want to tell him wasn't worth fighting over, and that was what it would come down to. "Did you happen to sense that as well?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I see… you must have to be near her then."

Hiei only considered him for a moment, and then quickly away, "This is becoming an obsession. You should be careful."

"I'm merely curious Hiei, Kagome is hiding something and I find that very interesting." Kurama looked down for a moment, "It seems I'm fortunate you're here, I may need your assistance in discovering what."

"Why should I become involved? It has nothing to do with me."

"If you weren't curious about her you wouldn't be here Hiei. I sincerely doubt that you would have remained hidden in a tree if you were looking for me."

"I merely happened by."

Whatever Hiei was thinking wouldn't be shared, and Kurama was used to accepting that, besides at the moment he was far too interested in whatever secrets Kagome was keeping to be preoccupied with what Hiei wasn't saying this time. "I see… then what caused you to stop?" He ignored the glare Hiei gave him. "I won't tell anyone your secret Hiei. I find her… fascinating myself."

"It's nothing like that." Hiei paused, "The detective won't be pleased to discover you're investigating her, if he has changed his mind about her that is."

"Then we will have to ensure that Yusuke does not find out."

For a long time Kagome had thought school was hard because she was unprepared, tired or worried about her so call "Extra-curricular activities". She'd never once considered the possibility that school was just hard. That was until her first day at her new school ended with an exhausted walk home just like every day at her old school had. It didn't help that she had other concerns playing on her mind.

She knew she'd sensed several demonic auras over the last few days, and wondered why she'd never noticed them before. There weren't supposed to be demons in the modern era, but…

Sighing to herself Kagome tried to banish thoughts of demons and turn her attention back to thoughts of school work. She hadn't been attacked by any after all, for the moment the only demon she really had to worry about was a half demon that was losing his mind over a stupid wish. With her mind swirling between her thoughts of Inuyasha, and the tests coming up that she definitely wasn't ready for Kagome indulged in her new nervous habit, and found her hand back in her pocket, her fingers running over the jewel's smooth surface until she found the crack where the last shard was missing. She ran her fingertip across the sharp edge of the tiny crevice, absently taking in the difference in the feel from the smooth rounded edge and this roughened spot.

Gasping sharply Kagome withdrew her hand from her pocket, the breath she'd sucked in leaving her as a hiss. She stared for a moment at the blood dripping from the torn skin across the tip of her right index finger, then sighed and absently spun her backpack around to search for a napkin or a band-aid, trying to ignore the twinges of pain that radiated through the finger she held away from her to keep the blood from dripping on her or her school things as she searched.

"That appears painful. What happened?"

"Hmm…" She looked up to meet a pair of large bright green eyes and in an instant felt every part of her freeze, "S… Shuichi…" She tried to hide the nervousness that clenched her stomach and the apprehension that had her eyes widening, and made her forget about the pain in her hand, until he caught it with his.

"That's quite a bit of blood, what happened?" He produced a red handkerchief and tore it in two. She was silent, watching in awe as he wrapped the cloth around her finger and tied it in place with a small knot. "Are you alright?"

"Oh…" She stared, wondering if the strange aura she'd felt earlier would return, waiting for it and the small seed of panic in her to blossom. Instead she just received a slight smile that didn't hide the oddly concerned look in his eyes. "I must have stabbed myself on a… pen or something." She murmured, still staring at her finger again, "It'll be fine in a day or two."

"You should be more cautious where you keep your pens." He could see the blood soaking into the fabric around her finger, "You'll have to bandage that better when you get home, but for now…"

"Oh…" She jerked her hand away from him suddenly, blushing lightly, "Thank you… I'm sorry about your handkerchief."

"It's nothing to worry about, I have plenty more." Feeling the awkward energy rolling off of her he dropped his smile, "How was your first day here?"

"Tiring." She wasn't sure why she was so relieved that the strange aura she'd sensed when she'd spoken with him earlier didn't seem to be here, probably because demons made her nervous now that she had the jewel, and because there was something about that aura that seemed like it was familiar, even though she knew it wasn't, "For some reason I didn't remember classes being that hard."

"I'm certain you'll do very well once you become accustomed to it here."

"Says the smartest guy in school!" She turned on him without fully meaning to, her accusing finger hovering so close to his nose she was nearly poking him, "Don't give me that surprised look. I heard all about you Shuichi Minamino, You have the highest grades in the school in practically every subject there is. I bet school is just easy for you isn't it?"

"Well, yes." He nearly cringed away from the glare she gave him this time. "You did say you had missed a lot of school. I'm certain you'll find it easy enough once you get used to it again."

The determined fire in her eyes vanished and she dropped her hand, looked at the ground between them, "That must be it." She turned away then without another word and began walking. Maybe he was right; maybe if she just had school to focus on it would get easy again. She'd been busy with the jewel shards, and always had so much on her mind school had been difficult to find time for, and she was pretty far behind. So maybe in a week or two she'd have readjusted. She seriously hoped so, because if she had to deal with this everyday Kagome was pretty sure it would kill her.

"You seem depressed, did I say something wrong?" If he got to know her better perhaps he could figure out exactly what sort of thing she might hide. It wasn't much, but it was also a starting point, and if he gave her enough time she might just slip on her own.

"No, it's nothing like that." She offered a smile, but barely turned to face him, "I'm just home sick is all." It was true in a way. She missed her family, but she missed her friends more, couldn't help worrying about them. She had wanted to go back and warn them about how Inuyasha was acting, but she hadn't been brave enough, and her mother hadn't been willing to let her go. Besides they didn't have the jewel so there was no reason he should go after them. Unless he decided to go after Kohaku…

She carefully tucked her hand back into her pocket, her fingers closing around the jewel again, careful to avoid pushing too hard against the sharp edge that had cut her flesh moments earlier. Inuyasha wouldn't have hurt Kohaku, he wouldn't normally hurt her either; he had just been angry and lost control for some reason. He probably felt really bad about it now that he'd had time to think about it. That didn't mean that she was going to go back and see early, just in case he was still angry with her. She had managed to hurt him pretty seriously… even if she wasn't sure on how she'd done it. When she'd seen him going toward Sota, when she'd thought that he might have hurt her she'd had no choice but to act, and the power had just gathered in her hand. She'd tried a few times since then to replicate it, but it just didn't work.

Homesickness was a good excuse, but not one that she would be able to use forever. Finding a new one wouldn't be all that difficult, but she was so tired of making excuses. Her fingers found the missing piece again, drawing her attention sharply back to the jewel in her pocket. It would probably be covered with her blood… again. There was a spot in the very cracked section that had cut her where she could still see blood. It had been there since she'd gotten it back from Naraku, and Kagome was beginning to think that she would never be able to clean the dried substance out of it. Nothing had worked to dispose of it yet after all, and she'd tried everything she could think of, from delicate brushes, cotton swabs, and even soaking the jewel itself in bleach and several other cleansers. Sighing to herself she withdrew the jewel to inspect the damage, and tried not to cringe at the rust colored smears over the normally sparkling surface as she reached for the bottom of her shirt in hopes of wiping it away before it dried completely.

"What's that?" His voice made her jump, and Kagome's hand began to close instinctively over the jewel, but she stopped herself. If she tried to hide it now it would only reveal how important the thing really was, exactly what she'd been trying to hide by disguising it as a keychain. She mentally berated herself for being an idiot and completely forgetting that he was walking with her.

"This? It's just some old piece of junk keychain my grandpa gave me a long time ago." She was only half lying after all. Her grandfather had given her the keychain, she'd just replaced the false jewel that had come with it with the real one. "He had a whole box of them made years ago and gave me one too."

"That was kind of him."

"Better than a petrified nymph hand or something like that." She scoffed a little, "He's got a passion for odd antiques."

"It sounds as if he means a great deal to you." He could hear the affection through the annoyed tone she was trying to perfect.

"Well of course he does…" Kagome stopped short of another step, her eyes glued to the stone in her hand, "They all do… more than anything." And that was why she had to keep the jewel safe and away from evil hands. If there were demons and even evil humans in the modern era that got the jewel it would have all been in vain, all of the sacrifices she and her friends had made, all the work they had done to put it together, to get it from Naraku. No matter what time period she was in if anyone got the jewel it would mean severe danger, and that was why she would keep the loathsome thing with her forever if that was what it took, no matter how she wished to be rid of it. In order to keep her family safe, and her friends safe she had to keep it out of the wrong hands. With a mildly renewed sense of purpose trying to battle through her slight depression she put the keychain away. It hit her so suddenly she had wide eyes as she turned to look at him, "I forgot… I'm running so late!" She waved over her shoulder as she ran away down the street, leaving him to stare after her for a long moment.

She'd promised Yusuke she'd make dinner again, but in order to make anything she had to stop by the grocery store, which while only a block from the apartment building she didn't know the layout of very well, and had no idea how long it would take her to find what she was looking for. If she didn't want a surly and annoyed brother on her hands she would have to hurry. She was actually enjoying it, making dinner, hanging out with Yusuke, at first she hadn't thought they would be friends, but he was pretty entertaining, and nicer than she'd initially suspected. These were the little things she'd taken for granted before her journey into the feudal era, and with a brother closer to her own age it was easier to realize how much she'd missed them.

Kagome was only a few feet from the market's door when something brought her to a sudden halt. She paused for a moment before she was able to spin around, her eyes searching the crowds around her.

Someone was following her.

Kagome wasn't certain how she knew, she just did. There was someone, or something following her down the street, it had been for several blocks now. But as soon as she looked nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Deciding that she was crazy she shook her head and stepped into the store, glancing over her shoulder once again before the door closed behind her.

"You may have been right about her."

"Hiei?" He hadn't expected to see the shorter demon sitting in his window, hadn't expected to see him for probably several days at least since he had been less than interested in Kurama's growing interest in figuring out Kagome.

"I followed her… she saw me."

"She knows that you were following her?"

"Don't be a fool. I avoided actually being seen, but she was looking."

"She sensed my energy when I used it earlier, perhaps that is how she knew you were there."

"I wasn't using any energy."

"Well, she continues to grow progressively more interesting doesn't she?" He smiled a little to himself, "It seems I'll have to try a little harder."

"She's still only human. It was probably a coincidence." By the time he'd blinked Hiei was gone, clearly unnerved that even while he had been trying to be stealthy Kagome had noticed his presence. Kurama dropped onto his bed, drawing one knee up to his chest as he stared thoughtfully at the wall. In all likelihood there was nothing to be concerned about, if there was something wrong about her surely someone else would be able to tell, but he couldn't help his instincts, and his instincts were screaming that there was something about Kagome that he didn't know, something it was vital he discover if only for his sanity. She was hiding something, and her attempts at keeping it secret only served to make him want to know what it was more.


	6. Games and Misunderstandings

Until this morning Kagome had considered her first week of school to be a disaster, and she was expecting the last day of it to be as awful as the first. But minute after minute ticked past, and there were no pranks, no gum on her chair, no "accidental" water spills across her uniform, and not even any snide remarks. It seemed that the school wide pastime of tormenting the new girl was finally over, and she could settle down into the normal life she was living. At first she'd been worried that she would become bored living the everyday existence of some regular teenage girl, but even while she missed her friends on the other side of the well Kagome loved every moment of the normalcy she'd lost over the previous years. She'd begun to think of the apartment as home nearly as much as she felt the shrine was. She was even beginning to make friends again, although mostly she spent her time with Yusuke or Kazuma, who was at the apartment so much she sometimes forgot he didn't live there. But for some reason she was still… sad and a little nervous, like she was living in a dream that she knew was going to end soon. A dream she was dreading waking up from.

She'd taken to eating her lunch at that bench as well, often ignoring her food to read one of her textbooks or work on some assignment or another. Kurama had taken to watching her quietly and unnoticed from a distance.

He'd seen her in several states over the last few days, from rushing through her work with a fanatical look in her eye, he'd seen her throw her textbook in frustration just to run over and carry it back with careful hands and painstakingly search for signs of damage. He'd seen her stare wistfully into the distance, once he'd even seen her joke around with Yusuke when he and Kuwabara had skipped out of school and decided to come visit her. Kurama had been amused and fascinated by all these sides she unwittingly showed, but today was a different story.

She was sitting in her usual spot, her jacket neatly folded over the bench beside her, the same way it always was, her backpack sat propped up against her legs. But she wasn't reading. Her books sat forgotten with her lunch beside the bag, as if she'd started to take them out and forgotten them. Instead she was staring at her hands that were resting motionlessly in her lap, and as the wind pushed at her mercilessly he could feel the unbearable sadness around her. Before he'd watched from the distance, just far enough away that she wouldn't notice, hoping for some sign of something odd around her, but this… this was unbearable.

"I'm glad to see your finger has recovered." He waited for her to look at him before he sat, not deceived by the brilliant smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"It looked worse than it was, it healed in less than two days."

"That's good, it would have been very inconvenient to have your hand bandaged for an extended period of time." He watched her carefully from the corner of his eye.

"You would have known it was better already if you ever said hello." There was an accusation in her voice, but the glare she gave him seemed only half hearted at best, "I was beginning to think you were avoiding me."

"No nothing of the sort, I just didn't want to interrupt you while you were studying." He looked away from her, hoping she wouldn't detect the lie. Not wanting to interrupt her had had nothing to do with it.

"I wouldn't have minded. I live with Yusuke, and with him and Kazuma around I hardly ever seem to get anything done anyway, so I'm pretty used to it."

"Then you're still getting along well? I was mildly concerned about it at first, but I've never been happier to be wrong."

"You weren't the only one." Kagome's hands dropped to her hands again, "I can't imagine how much harder this would be if I didn't… if we weren't able to get along. It's already hard being away from everyone I don't think I could stand being lonely too." She was silent for a moment, then shook her head and looked up with a soft smile, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound so… depressing."

"It's understandable. I'm rather attached to my family as well. I know how difficult it is to be away from them." He found his head tipping downward at the very idea.

He understood? Kagome hesitated for a moment looking at him, her fingers itching to tuck back the curtain of red hair that hid his face from her, but refusing to give in to the urge. Yusuke was fun to talk to, she liked being around him, but he didn't understand why she missed her family so much, sure he loved his mother, but he never felt guilty being away from her, never missed her that badly no matter how long he might have been away. But Shuichi understood it, she could hear it in his voice, he hated being away from his family as much as she did being away from hers. She smiled a little, "My little brother called last night to yell at me. Apparently I promised to go to his soccer game and missed seeing him score the first goal. That's how I know he misses me; he's calling just so we can fight." She laughed softly, noticed his smile as his head lifted as well.

"I imagine he loves you very much then."

"I don't know. He's a real brat most of the time, and I think he wanted to talk to Yusuke more than me, I guess having an older brother is a lot cooler than having an older sister. I'm sort of last year's news."

"You should both go to visit them this weekend, I'm sure they would be very happy to see you, and Yusuke would probably be glad to meet them, particularly your younger brother."

"I… can't." She looked down again and the sadness was back, pressing heavily on the air, making Kurama want very badly to comfort her, he was about to when she spoke, "It's just… I have so much homework to do and it really wouldn't be fair to go visit anyone when I couldn't actually visit." The look on her face betrayed the lie she was telling more than her tone. While she may have been worried about her schoolwork it was not what was keeping her away from home. However the lie gave him a chance to take advantage of it and provide an opportunity for spending more time with her.

"I would be happy to help you with your assignments if you're having trouble."

"Really?" She looked happier than he'd seen her in several days, even happier than when Yusuke and Kuwabara had come, "That would be great. For some reason I can't seem to understand half of this…"She lifted the previously forgotten math book into her hands, flicked quickly through the pages before sighing and snapping it shut again. "From what I've heard one of us is a real math whiz, and since I know it's not me that leaves you."

Realizing that there was a compliment somewhere in there he smiled. "Tonight then? I'll walk you home after school?"

"Sure, I'll meet you out front after class." She caught a glimpse of his watch as he reached up to brush his hair away from his face and without thinking reached over to take a hold of his wrist and ignored how he stiffened as she turned his arm and examined the face, "Oh no, I'm going to be late… again."

"You had better hurry then." He stood, gathering her backpack up and held it out to her, then watched as she took it and ran away at full speed. It was amusing sometimes just being near her. Kagome was scattered, energetic nearly to the point of hyperactivity, like a breathing hurricane. One moment you were standing with her in the eye at the center, and then the storm broke out to try shattering the world. Being around her was certainly never boring.

"Look Kuwabara, I like having you around and everything… but…" Yusuke did his best to block his friend's hand from reaching the doorknob, "Come on man, you've got your own sister to bother, so how about leaving mine… the… hell… alone…" He knocked the taller boy back slightly, trying to avoid getting Kagome's attention. It was late enough that she would be home by now, and while for most of the week he hadn't minded having Kuwabara around he just couldn't take listening to them both singing off key like they did every morning while they had breakfast, or listen to the way she laughed at the idiot, sure Kuwabara still had a thing for Yukina, but Yusuke wasn't stupid enough to forget that the red head had been in love with Botan before that, and he also wasn't blind enough to keep from realizing that his sister was pretty, he'd already had to knock out several guys that were looking at her wrong, and he had no desire to join Hiei in the "Kazuma Kuwabara is stalking my sister" club.

"Yeah, face it Urameshi, you just don't like that she likes me more than you."

"She's my sister you idiot, not some girl we're fighting over," Yusuke rolled his eyes, it didn't matter, he knew that he was Kagome's favorite, she did save him special meals after all, laughed at his jokes, argued with him. He'd never had a sister, but so far it was sort of like having a best friend who had no choice but to love you no matter what you did, or how much you picked on them for their bad singing, or shortness. She was just so damn easy to tease.

"Just open the door!" Kuwabara looked like he was going to try hitting him, "You just want all the food to yourself, she promised us something special tonight."

"Go get your own sister to make you something." Kuwabara's retort was a fist to Yusuke's stomach, which was replied to with a fist to the face and in moments the two were reduced to a wrestling match on the hallway floor.

"If you two aren't finished I'd be glad to go in without you." The bored voice froze them both mid-blow and brought their slightly widened eyes up to a short black haired figure leaning against the wall about a foot away. "Although detective, if you're going to kill the oaf I'd be glad to observe."

"Huh… Hiei, what's up?" Yusuke pushed himself to his feet, dusting his pants off roughly.

"I came to find Kurama; you were just blocking the door."

"Best place to find Kurama this time of day is at school."

"He wasn't there." Hiei paused for a moment, a glint flashing for a moment in his eyes as he looked away, "From what I overheard he walked your sister home several hours ago."

"He did huh? I didn't know they even talked at school." Kagome had mentioned running into him on her first day there, but over the last four days she hadn't said anything about it.

"Yes, he's been quite preoccupied with her lately." Hiei allowed himself only a hint of a satisfied smirk. Having dealt with Kuwabara's so call _love_ of his sister he knew how this news would sound to Yusuke, and precisely how much it would bother him.

"You don't say." Kurama was preoccupied… with his sister… what exactly did that mean? The first night she'd been there Kurama had shown an odd interest in her, and he wasn't the type to just let those sorts of things go, but preoccupied with her… was that some sort of weird way of saying…? "Hold on… Hiei are you saying Kurama's got a crush on my sister?"

"Crush? Why would he want to crush her, he _likes_ her after all."

It was all the answer he needed. His tempered sparked and flared in a heartbeat. His annoyance rapidly becoming rage Yusuke all but kicked the door open and stalked into the apartment, his eyes flashing between the empty living room and emptier kitchen. If they weren't out here where were they? They were definitely in the apartment. Kagome never left without locking the door, and leaving a note if it was unexpected. She was just responsible that way. His heart skipped a beat suddenly as his eyes widened. That only left…

Yusuke was practically growling as he wheeled around and headed toward Kagome's closed bedroom door. His hand desended on the handle, and he was prepared to throw it open when two voices floated through the barrier, freezing him in place.

"That was… painful."

"It wasn't that bad."

"Maybe not for you."

"Well, next time should be more enjoyable."

"I didn't mean that it wasn't fun…"

"Shall we try again… or do you need a break?"

What the _HELL _was going on in there? If Yusuke's eyes had possessed the power the door would have already burned down from the way he was glaring at it.

"I am a little… worn out… but why not?"

The sudden silence sent his mind reeling with sudden, very bad images that made him slightly sick to his stomach and mostly consisted of Kagome and Kurama rolling around under the blankets on her bed. Anger sparking back to life quickly enough to counteract the shock Yusuke closed his hand around the doorknob with enough force he could have bent it and threw the door open.

"Kurama, what they hell do you think you're doing with my sister? I'm going to kick your… are those flashcards? Man what kind of weird crap are you into?" Two pairs of wide eyes met his own and Yusuke felt himself beginning to blush.

"Um… who's Kurama?" Kagome glanced between them as she set aside a piece of paper she'd been busy studying only moments before.

"It's just a nickname." Kurama offered her a smile that was just a little too bright before turning to the new arrival, "Is there a problem Yusuke?" He asked mildly.

"Well I… you were…" Yusuke rubbed nervously at the back of his neck, putting on a slightly manic smile and tried to hide the red stains of embarrassment on his cheeks from the two of them.

"We've made a game. It makes studying more entertaining than simply reading out of a book." Kurama stood and turned fully to the blushing young man standing in front of him, "Kagome is doing quite well, she nearly won the last round."

"Only because you felt sorry for me and started throwing the game." She crossed her arms and gave him one of her halfhearted pouting glares, an expression they had all become accustomed to over the last few days.

"Not at all, you've just improved." He couldn't help staring at Yusuke's face, which was red enough that it rivaled his hair and Hiei's eyes for their shade. "What's bothering you Yusuke?"

"Oh… Hiei told him you've got a crush on Kagome and he got all worried that you two were… well… you know." Kuwabara stared for a moment before looking away with a face nearly as red as Yusuke's.

"I see." He looked down, embarrassed himself now, "I assure you I would ne…"

"Yusuke!" Kagome was on her feet suddenly, her normally barely pink cheeks burning with a blush that was almost violent, "I can't believe you! What kind of girl do you think I _am_? And even if I was, do you really think I'd do… _that_… with one of your friends without telling you something was going on?"

"Well it's not you I was yelling at!"

Stuck between the two glares Kurama felt a twinge of something he hadn't experienced for quite some time. Fear. However slight it was he couldn't deny it.

Apparently the siblings had more in common than quick tempers, because he could practically see the energy falling off of each of them in waves… and Kagome's stung and made a part of him want to tremble. A single glance at Hiei's wide eyes revealed that he wasn't the only one who could feel it. For a moment Kurama considered inching away from them and toward the door. If either of the two were to increase their power further he might have been in a very bad position, and he wasn't certain of how to disarm the situation.

"Don't take it out on Shuichi." He was as surprised as Yusuke when her soft voice filled the tense silence, "I asked for his help. I didn't think you would be this upset about it, but I guess I should have talked to you first." She looked down as her energy level seemed to rapidly drop and the needles that had been burrowing into him vanished, "I'm sorry I upset you."

"Nah… I… sorta… well…" Yusuke was blushing again, but not as violently now.

"I thought you guys would be back earlier so dinner's probably cold by now. We ate without you… I didn't think you would mind."

"No, I don't mind Kagome." Yusuke smiled, "You guys have fun studying… I won't bother you anymore." He caught Kuwabara's arm and yanked him away toward the kitchen, leaving Kagome and Kurama alone in the room and Hiei standing in the doorway.

"I should probably go." He murmured.

"Why?" Kagome looked up at him with wide curious eyes that Kurama didn't fully understand, "Oh… that whole him minding thing?" She waved her hand dismissively and chuckled a little, "I was just making him feel bad about the outburst. It wasn't anything important."

"Is that why you lied to him?"

"Hmm?"

"You told Yusuke that you had asked for my help, when in reality I offered it, and all but insisted you accept."

"Oh…" Kagome looked down suddenly again, "Sometimes you have to lie… if it's for the best." She paused, seemed to realize they were watching her and put a smile on her face when she looked up, "Or so I've heard."

He glanced away from her to the shorter man standing in the doorway, "I trust you've had your amusement for the day Hiei? That was a rather annoying joke at our expense."

"It was a misunderstanding that's all." Or so he claimed, but Hiei wasn't normally very open about his sense of humor, and Kurama was fairly certain that the demon had been looking for a laugh, or perhaps some payback for their often poorly veiled humor about his hidden relation to Yukina. Or perhaps he had just wanted to cause trouble for the sake of causing trouble, either sounded like Hiei.

"Did you want something?" Hiei only glanced toward the hall, and Kurama nodded, "Excuse me for a moment Kagome, I shouldn't be long." He paused at the door, "I can trust you not to cheat at our game can't I?"

"Of course I won't cheat."

Smiling to himself Kurama followed Hiei to the hall, closed the door with a sot click behind him. "Now, what was it you wanted?"

"I took advantage of one of the perks of my probation being lifted."

"I noticed that you had vanished for a few days."

"Interested in where I might have gone?"

Kurama considered him for a moment. "Very well, I'll take your bait. Where have you been?"

"I visited a certain shrine."


	7. Development

It was almost amusing, watching the interest he tried to hide sparking in his eyes. Hiei nearly laughed at the look he was receiving from Kurama, how hard the fox was trying to hide the nearly desperate desire to know what he did. "It was very difficult to get inside of course. The house was well protected."

"I would assume as much."

Hiei considered him for a moment longer, then turned away from the disappointment that bothered even him, "Do you want to know what I found?"

"I would like very much to know." He blinked when Hiei tossed him something, caught it as a reflex, and knew from the texture against his fingers as well as from the weight of the two items that they were photos. After only a second to hide how badly he wanted to look at them Kurama glanced down, and promptly wondered why Hiei had thought this might possibly interest him.

The image was of two people, a man dressed as a monk with dark hair and blue eyes, a staff held behind his back and his other arm around a woman with brown hair who was dressed in a simple old fashioned kimono holding a kitten that looked only slightly odd. They were both smiling brightly.

"Hiei, I fail to see why this…"

"Don't get impatient. Try the next one."

Sighing he swapped the pictures, nearly rolling his eyes before going to the next. The first thing that stuck out to his eyes this time was the vibrant red of the subject's outfit, and then the silver white color of the young man's hair. He barely noticed at first the fuzzy years sticking up on the glowering young man's head. Before his growing curiosity could be fully expressed his eyes found what was sitting on the man's shoulder.

The child had brownish hair with a slight red tint and big green eyes that were practically shining with happiness as his mouth was closing over an already half gone sucker. He could tell despite the bow that this was a boy, and he could tell from the paws it stood on that it was no human. "This is… interesting." He heard Hiei laugh in response to his understatement.

"A distant relative perhaps? I heard once that you got around quite a bit as Yoko."

"Don't start spouting nonsense Hiei; you would hate to sound like a fool." The costumes were impeccable. If he hadn't known it was impossible Kurama would have sworn these were pictures of real demons… but how would Kagome have come across pictures of demons? Why would she have them? Did she maybe know these people? Had she just had some friends dress up, but then what about the boy's feet? This made no sense, and there were few things he hated more than something that made no sense.

"It seems you may have had reason to suspect her. She had several albums full of photos of these people, and the house was very well protected against demons. That coupled with her display in there… she may in fact be more dangerous than most normal humans."

"I doubt she would have meant to harm us, Kagome and Yusuke are alike, their power is strongest and somewhat difficult to control when they're angry."

"Isn't it for all of us." A statement, not a question. "The detective might be in over his head here… again."

"I suspect that may happen to anyone with a sister."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Even the hidden eye on Hiei's forehead seemed to be glowing with annoyance.

"Just an observation." He smiled, hoping to diffuse the situation quickly; he already had too much on his mind to be concerned with an angry Hiei. "It just seems that I am fortunate to not have one to cause trouble."

Hiei turned away with his usual noncommittal sound, likely thinking of the trouble that Yukina was still causing him with her search for her brother, who she still didn't realize was often standing right next to her when she mentioned him. Something that often led to very tense moments and many telepathic death threats.

"Hiei," Even as he spoke he couldn't help but stare at the picture, trying to find signs that it had been altered, searching for details that would betray costumes or if he was looking at pictures of the real thing, "have you attempted looking at her thoughts?"

"Is there a puzzle even the great Kurama can't solve?" Hiei was smirking as he issued the taunt. He would never have thought that Kurama would ask for telepathic helping hand in trying to figure out something as trivial as a human girl, "Or was the detective right about your feelings for his sister. If you're hoping she's having heated thoughts of you I'd rather avoid seeing them."

"It's nothing like that, though I will admit to having trouble following her trains of thought."

"Understandable, looking into that human's head is a nightmare. There's far too much chaos for anything to be clear."

"So you did attempt it?"

"Once… she gave me an odd look."

"Excellent justification. Could you make out anything of importance, I've had very little luck in learning anything about her."

"Have you tried asking directly? Or have you been too busy flirting?"

"Asking her directly would only make her defensive and ruin my chances of ever learning anything." He looked at the picture a last time before shoving it into a pocket, "This has to be handled carefully."

"Carefully? Pin her to a wall and demand answers. I'm tired of hearing about it." A momentary, and very un-Hiei glint crossed his red eyes, "Or is there something else you would rather pin her down for?"

"Hiei, that joke wasn't amusing to begin with." So it had been an intentional joke then. Kurama could see many outbursts from Yusuke in his future if Hiei got his way.

"I find it very humorous."

"Yes, you would." He looked down for a moment as he battled the smile. Hiei had a sense of humor that didn't necessarily involve death and destruction… who would have thought? Kurama arranged his face in an expression that he hoped made it look like he was suffering, but from the look on the fire demon's face he wasn't convinced, and when Kurama glanced away, by the time he looked back Hiei was already gone. Sighing he turned and made his way back into the apartment, chuckling a little at the way Yusuke and Kuwabara were fighting in the living room. How Kagome dealt with it on a daily, even hourly basis… it was unbelievable, she must have had the patience of a saint.

She was standing by the window when he entered the room, her arms crossed as she stared through the glass, "Are you ready to continue?" He paused for a moment when she didn't respond, and slowly moved toward her, "Kagome, are you all right?" He asked just a little louder, trying to get her attention without startling her.

"Oh… I'm sorry did you say something?" She turned back for a moment, but her eyes were quickly pulled to the window.

"You seem preoccupied."

"Hmmm?" She couldn't keep her eyes off of the window, off of the night that was falling beyond it, but it was what she felt in that night air that made her shiver just a little, that kept demanding her attention. It was the feeling… that feeling. At first she hadn't realized what it was, she'd never expected to feel it here after all, but once the realization hit she was too shocked to do anything but stare out the window in the direction she felt it coming from. That was a demonic aura, and not one of the peaceful ones she'd been surprised to find she hadn't noticed before, after all there was a distinctly demonic aura around one of Yusuke's friends, and sometimes around Shuichi, who was still talking to her even though she couldn't make out what he was saying. The aura demanded too much of her attention for her to be able to focus on anything else.

He said her name again, a little more sharply this time. "Oh… sorry Shuichi…" She found her eyes going back to the window, and absently moved even closer to it, awe bringing her hand to the glass rather than sending her running from the room. It was… awful. She'd only felt that kind of evil a few times in the feudal era, though she'd certainly sensed stronger back then. Still, even if this wasn't as strong as some of the demons she'd faced with the others before it wasn't good. Kagome shook her head to shake herself into action. There was no one in the modern era ready to handle demons, only loons like her grandfather believed in them anymore… oh great, did that make her a loon? Swallowing Kagome made her way across the room quickly, not letting herself fall back into the strange habit of stillness that she'd recently acquired. There was no one ready to deal with it, and while she probably wasn't completely ready either, but she was the only one… the only one left that could do anything about it. She dropped to her knees, digging for the closet floor and the hidden bow she'd placed there.

"Umm… Kagome, is there a problem?" His voice made her jump and Kagome wondered how she'd forgotten he was there… again. She gathered the bow and quiver in her arms, careful to keep one of her long coats wrapped around it.

"No…no problem… I just… need some air." She inched slowly past him, smiling brightly all the way in an attempt to set him at ease and get past him, "So, I'm going to take a walk… I'll only been a minute…" Kagome was nearly to the door now, she quickly turned away, about to make the final run.

"Perhaps I should accompany you then… it's getting rather late you probably shouldn't be wandering the streets alone…"

"Wandering the streets alone?" She turned back with a slight hint of annoyance. Why did everyone always think she was helpless? But the slight look of concern on his face made her want to cringe at her own temper, "Oh, don't worry about me, I'll be fine." She paused for a moment longer taking in the confused and worried look he barely managed to keep in his eyes, "I'll only be a few minutes, promise. I just need to clear my head a little." She smiled and waved over her shoulder, "Be right back."

By the time he'd followed her to the living room Kagome had already vanished through the door. For a long moment he considered going after her, wondering what had happened to make her take off running like that, what had had her staring out the window like that. It had to be something, or maybe she was just embarrassed about Yusuke's earlier outburst still and needed a moment. Still there had to be something else…

"Hey Kurama, what happened? Why did Kagome take off like that?" Yusuke rolled his head back a little to look at him from where he lounged on the couch next to Kuwabara, who hadn't bothered to look away from the television screen.

"You know her Urameshi; she probably just forgot she dropped something somewhere. It's not the first time she's taken off."

"Yeah you're right." Yusuke yawned just a little and turned back to the television screen.

"Yusuke, don't you think we should at least consider pursuing her? It may be dangerous for her out there."

"Nah, don't worry about Kagome. She's pretty tough, hits almost as hard as Keiko so we don't really have to worry."

"I don't know Urameshi, I'm starting to get one of those feelings." Kuwabara followed Kurama's gaze to the door.

"You two are just being paranoid."

She knew she was going too fast, but Kagome also knew that she didn't have a choice. She'd wasted far too much time already, and this was far too important for that.

There was no guarantee that she would be successful of course, she knew that she probably wouldn't be, but she at least had to try. After all, it wasn't as if anyone else was going to take care of the thing. Humans didn't believe in demons, and even if there were demons here it wasn't likely that one of them was going to be some good guy vigilante killing off the bad seeds. She couldn't even expect one of them to help her. If she could find one that didn't want to kill her on sight what was she supposed to do, introduce herself and say 'hey there's some demon I think is going to cause trouble, want to help me take him out before he can hurt someone?' Yeah, that plan just screamed 'try me'. And so Kagome forced herself to run.

She was nearly to the bottom now, her feet going so quickly no more than her toe touched each stair. Her hair was blowing out behind her and she fumbled with the bow and quiver in her arms, trying to find a comfortable way to hold them and keep them covered at least until she wasn't in full view of the public just yet. That was all she needed, someone to stop her for having an odd weapon like that in her hands on her way to fight a demon. Kagome was certain that things just couldn't get any worse. But then, whenever she thought that something always did go wrong.

She felt the hard surface of the stairs fall away as her toe slid free and open air greeted it. Gasping in shock she watched the ground come rushing up to meet her.


	8. Life or Death?

She sucked in a panicked breath, her hands flying out instinctively as she tipped forward and the air rushed past her ears. A cry trembling on her lips and she watched in horror as the floor a few steps below came rushing toward her. She closed her eyes and braced herself for impact, even as her hands closed around the cold metal of the banister, waiting for the pain of her momentum and weight forcing her to release, the tearing of muscles that would come before she was forced to let go, waiting for her hands to slip.

After a long moment of stillness she opened her eyes and looked around. She'd turned during the fall, and now was staring up the stairs she had just come down. Her arms were crossed over her chest, both of her hands gripping the rail with enough force that her fingers ached. Somehow she'd managed to stop herself, bracing her heels against the step below the one she had slipped on and holding herself up with arms that were already protesting. After another deep breath in an attempt to calm herself and steady her still pounding heart Kagome pulled herself up a little, then slid first one foot, and once it was safely planted, the other to be beneath her again. "That was close…" She murmured, then turned and straitened her uniform that she was still wearing before searching for the items she'd dropped. Several arrows had fallen out of the quiver, and Kagome quickly picked them up and forced them back into place before collecting the bow that had fallen to the bottom of the staircase and rewrapping the entire bundle in her long brown coat before continuing to the front door of the building. Close call or not, she had something to do still, and all she was doing was wasting more time.

The cold air hit her, raising goose bumps along her exposed legs and arms where she'd pushed up her sleeves earlier. Kagome wished as she paused outside the building that she'd thought to grab a second coat so she would actually have one to wear. She turned first one direction, then the other deciding which direction the aura she was sensing was coming from, then turned and raced into the gathering darkness.

XXXXX

"Kuwabara, you get one of those feelings when one of us has to sneeze. Whatever your problem is, just get the hell over it." Yusuke threw the coat they'd dropped on his lap and stretched once more before planting his hands firmly behind his head and his feet securely on the coffee table.

"Urameshi, aren't you even a little worried? It's dark and… what if some thug tries something with no one there to help her? She could get hurt!"

"Oh, come on. She's just walking around the block or something, how much trouble can she get in?"

"Clearly you underestimate how much attention one girl can attract." Kurama paused, wondering why he was waiting for Yusuke at all. Whatever his reason for following her, whether concern for her well being, or even curiosity about where she might have been going and why, he shouldn't have been standing around waiting on Yusuke and Kuwabara to decide if either of them were going to go along.

"Come on Kurama, Urameshi must not care about his sister like we do, but we're real men, we'll go help her out."

He nearly sighed; maybe he should have just gone immediately instead of standing around to find out what was going on.

XXXXX

Red eyes slid over the tip of an abandoned arrow, admiring the sharpened point and straight shaft, the quality of the wood and metal and were mildly impressed as they rose to the girl who had dropped it. She turned sharply around a corner and continued on, her footsteps echoing quietly through the silent streets as she left the main roads and started down side streets, a coat wrapped around the weapons he'd seen her drop before leaving the building. He paused for only a moment to wonder what she was going to do now before following after her.

XXXXX

"Guys, I still say this is a major waste of time. Besides if we do manage to catch up with her Kagome's just gonna get mad at us for following her. If she didn't want to be alone she would have asked one of us to come." He still wasn't sure how he'd been talked into this. Maybe it was because Kuwabara and Kurama were making such a big deal about it, but he was even starting to worry about her a little himself. Kagome wasn't the type to just run off like that, but it wasn't like she'd been overly upset, or they were in a really bad part of town after all. She was just taking a walk.

"Either way I'm certain she will be touched that we were all concerned enough about her to come looking for her."

"Hey Kurama, maybe you should go alone." Kuwabara smiled a little, nudging the other redhead with an elbow, "You might win Kagome over a little. Girl's really like guys who come to their rescue."

"Alright," There was no way he was going to let Kurama win any points with his sister. Even if they hadn't been up to anything earlier there was no telling if things would stay that way, and he wasn't making it easier for them. Quickly he swung his coat over his shoulders and started walking to the door. "Let's get moving."

XXXXX

She turned to corner without slowing only to come skidding to a halt on the gravel path, barely keeping her balance as the pebbles ricocheted out from under her steps and threw her balance off. With a slight squeak Kagome froze, staring around the darkened landscape. "A park? What would a demon be doing in a park?" She shook her head and began walking. In a way it made sense, after all who hung out in parks at night? They were a daytime activity, and with all the trees in this one there were definitely plenty of places to find privacy.

The gravel crunched loudly beneath her feet no matter how lightly she stepped, the sound echoing loudly through the empty expanses. Swallowing some of her nerves Kagome stepped to the side of the path, stepping onto the soft dirt between the lawn and pathway. It wouldn't do her any good for someone to know she was coming. Even if she was hoping that this was all some big misunderstanding, that she'd been wrong and whatever demon this aura belonged to wasn't up to anything bad so she could just go home and pretend that this had never happened and everything was perfectly fine, Kagome knew that she had to find out for sure, and that meant she needed to be a little sneaky.

Of course stealth wasn't something she was very good at most of the time, really sneaking around wasn't easy for her in the least, but… she had had some experience with trying to avoid being seen in the feudal era, maybe she would get lucky this time.

She felt the power tugging at her, and paused in search of it. "Oh of course…" She sighed looking at the trees that grew closely together across the lawn from where she stood. It was just her luck that the aura's source had to be somewhere in there. Was it really too much to ask that just once a demon stood out in the open and announced what they were doing? No they had to hide in forests where they could jump out at you from anywhere.

Kagome felt her legs shake as she moved toward the trees, the dewy grass slipping a little under her shoes. Swallowing nervously she unwrapped her bow, secured it in her hand and the quiver full of arrows over her shoulder. She paused for a moment at the tree line, the forgotten coat spilling from her hands and flowing slowly to the ground. Taking yet another steadying breath she looked at the dark hands reaching for her, and nearly choking on her fear took the path they set.

x

The eyes followed her through the dimness, able to detect the slight tremors in her steps, the way her eyes darted as she made her way down the path even he could barely see. The branches swung above her, the wind tugging at her hair as the night attempted to retrieve its color that she'd stolen and placed there. In this darkness her pale skin seemed to shine, drawing scarlet eyes to her no matter how she tried to hide herself in the shadows.

She'd revealed the weapons she carried now, their cover laying forgotten somewhere behind her. The bow she carried was made of red wood, the arrows in the quiver replicas of the one the eyes had already observed. This was… interesting.

XXXXX

"So, she say anything about which direction she was planning on going?"

"No… just that she wanted some air."

"Then how are we gonna find her?" Yusuke turned back for a moment, "Hey Kuwabara, you sense her energy or anything?"

"No, I can't sense her anywhere, but then… I usually can't…"

"At least there's no red pinky string. Guess I dodged a bullet huh Kurama?" He sighed when the redheads only looked at him, "Okay fox boy, any luck on smelling her out then?"

"I'm afraid it isn't that simple Yusuke. There are far too many scents for me to be able to tell definitively where she may have gone."

"Well that's just great. This was you idiots' idea, so did either of you come up with a way to find her, no you just snap and whine at me enough to make me come down here and expect me to come up with a plan as usual."

"Yusuke, no one asked you to come up with a plan." He glanced at the boy, "I think that perhaps we should just go in search of her. Perhaps splitting up wouldn't be the worst of ideas…"

"Not a chance. I am not getting cornered alone by her when it wasn't even my idea to go looking after her. If Kagome's getting mad at anyone it's gonna be you morons." Kurama couldn't help chuckling a little, "What's so funny fox boy?"

"You calling anyone a moron."

"You better start watching yourself Kurama, I'm still not so sure I'm happy that you've been hanging out with my sister without telling me, and I haven't completely decided against planting my fist in your face."

"Yusuke…"

XXXXX

The leaves mocked her, cackling softly above her as she moved further into the darkness past the trees that housed them. Her teeth were nearly chattering, from the cold air or her nervousness she wasn't sure, and her brain couldn't be bothered to find out. Kagome had far more important things to focus on at the moment.

The source of the aura was close; she could almost taste it in the air now. That suffocating pressure that spoke of bad things to come, of danger and death. That stench she couldn't smell, but could feel pressing in on her pores. Not as strong as some she had come in contact with, but still there and still frightening.

Dried leaves crunched softly beneath her feet now and then as she did her best to avoid the twigs, the forest's sentries, with her feet. Just one wrong step and she'd give herself away. Why did it feel like sneaking up on Kikyo and Inuyasha? Her feet had floated this soundlessly then… her body had been pulled in much the same way. Maybe… maybe there was a reason she was coming here…

Kagome shook the foolish thoughts away as she continued on, mentally berating herself for her stupidity. The only thing that had brought her here was herself, and if she had any sense she probably would have stayed back at the apartment, and not rushed out to find danger. Why was she always running off looking for trouble? Hadn't she learned by now that it was stupid to do that? But still here she was… her feet carrying her ever deeper into the darkness. Her grip tightened around her bow, her senses straining until they were painfully aware of the nothingness that stretched beyond her. She held her breath to be spared the pain of hearing her own breathing, almost wished she could control the pace her heart was racing at, that she could stop it from pounding in her throat and ears. She had to be getting close.

XXXXX

"You sure she went this way?"

"I can't be sure, but…" It was a feeling; his feet had just begun carrying him this way. For some reason Kurama couldn't doubt that Kagome had gone this way, despite his lack of evidence. He had learned the importance of instinct long before this… and his instinct screamed for him to go this direction, because she must have gone this way.

"You can't be sure?" He sighed, glaring at one redhead before looking for the other, "Where the hell did Kuwabara go?"

"He branched off from us some time ago; I wouldn't worry he should catch up with us soon." He looked at the ground, almost as if he could see her footsteps leading him. "I'm a bit more concerned about Kagome than Kuwabara at this point. She must have been running to make it this far without us finding her, and she's gone far further than a block."

"Yeah yeah, you were right I was wrong." Yusuke sighed, "Let's just find Kagome and drag her back home before she gets herself hurt."

If it wasn't too late already. The thought struck Kurama like a fist, and he couldn't help wondering why it made him speed up, though he tried to hide it from Yusuke, the last thing he needed right now was another stay away from my sister speech. He did want to find her though, and if that meant dealing with Yusuke behaving in an even more obvious display of displeasure than Hiei ever did when Kuwabara spoke of Yukina, he would deal with it.

XXXXX

Voices. Voices froze her, and then spun her to hide against a tree trunk, her body reacting on its own without her giving instructions. It even took a minute for her brain to register that her ears were actually hearing the voices, and it took even longer for her to recognize what they were saying. It was a scream that brought her back to the reality she was facing.

"Shut her up already." The voice was a hiss, something of a snarl and a whisper, but the wind carried it to her, made a shiver run down her spine along with it.

"I'm trying… she just won't stop." This voice sounded far more normal than the first, low and even, filled with boredom, as if this was an everyday occurrence.

"Then tear out her voice box, I'm tired of hearing all of that." The hiss replied.

"We could always get started…" A third voice whispered, higher than the first two, feminine and gravely, almost like a purr. It sent an even larger shiver over her.

Three. There were three. She'd made a mistake. Kagome held her breath for a long moment, staring unseeing at the forest beyond her. She'd thought this aura came from one demon, she hadn't realized that there would be three. Miroku had always been their demonic aura expert after all, she'd always been busy keeping track of the jewel shards, those she could feel, could tell apart, auras, when they mixed like this, were beyond her.

"Please… just let me…" The plea ended as a gasp and was followed by a thud. Holding a deep breath Kagome turned around, pressing her palms against the rough bark before looking into the clearing beyond. She watched in horror as a young woman was lifted by a large creature with scaled green skin and a swishing tail.

"The fire isn't hot enough yet." The purring voice whispered, accompanied by a smaller creature that moved forward slowly, swaying as it walked, blue-grey fur glinting in the orange light of the flames burning in the center of them, "Put the girl down, we won't be letting her get away."

"She doesn't have to be alive… necessarily."

"Enough you two. It won't be much longer so let's just keep our patience intact." The hiss was coming from somewhere in the shadows beyond the fire's ring of light.

Where they going to eat that girl? But she was so young… probably no more than ten or twelve. Kagome tried to turn her head, tried to close her eyes to deny what she was assuming, but there was no other option. She was here, and the girl was in danger. And there was no one else.

Her hand tightened around the bow again, her other hand went to the quiver, already selecting an arrow and fitting it in place. She held her breath, closed her eyes as she issued a nod to herself. Then as her dark eyes opened again she took a purposeful step away from the tree and set her shoulders to move into the light of the clearing.

"Let the girl go… right now." Her voice sounded far stronger than she felt, and she forced her hands not to waver as she took a moment to aim.

"Look… a little human thinks she can do something." The smaller of the two came toward her, watching with hungry eyes that glinted slightly in the flickering light. "Put the little toy away girl, you couldn't hit us anyway."

"I wouldn't count on that." Kagome wanted to tremble. She wanted to shiver and run, but there was no one else after all, and there was a little girl counting on her. "Just trust me, you don't want to get hit with one of my arrows, so let her go and I'll let you walk out of here alive." She forced all the authority she could manage into her voice, and hoped it was enough to be convincing. If she could avoid fighting then she would be glad to, but she just had a feeling that her luck would hold and she wouldn't be so fortunate.

Two voices chuckled at her, and Kagome felt herself flush. There was a time when they would have known instantly what one of her sacred arrows could do, and they would have cringed away from her, trembled at the idea, there were few demons that hadn't known what a priestess' arrows could do, and fewer who had been strong enough to survive it. These guys didn't know who they were messing with. She pulled back on the arrow, listened to the string complain at the pressure, then adjusted her aim just a little and released, funneling her power into it.

The blue and pink light spiraled around the arrow tip as it flew, cackling against the air viciously as it skimmed just past the demons looking at her. She had another in place by the time the first stuck into the ground near the larger one's foot, where it sparked a few times as her energy began to slowly dispel.

"And that was just a taste. So unless you want to feel the real thing let her go and get out of here." She snapped, trying to keep her arms from shaking as she pulled against the bowstring again. Her arrow hadn't been as strong as it should have been; she hadn't been able to put as much energy behind the attack as she wanted. Kagome could only hope it would be good enough.

"Nice try little girl, but you'll still have to be able to hit one of us." The furry shape moved forward, "We don't sit still like the ground you see."

"I didn't really expect you to." She fought the urge to swallow, refused to let herself tremble. Backing down wasn't an option in this case. There was no Inuyasha or Miroku, no Sango to pick up the slack if she got scared. Running wasn't an option; hiding wasn't something she could do either. This time she had to do it herself.

"Then why keep issuing warnings? If you're the fighter you're trying to pretend you are you would know to shoot first."

"Maybe I'm just not bloodthirsty."

"Maybe you're not nearly as strong as you like to pretend." The fuzz on her body became more obvious the closer she came, as did the blood matted into the strands. Kagome stared. She was already too late… this demon had killed someone else recently. It stung, to realize that she'd already failed to protect the people she'd come here to save. Her arms trembled for a moment, the arrow wavering from its target for only a moment. That moment was all that the target needed.

Pain exploded in her side at the impact that threw her sideways, but years of this happening had ingrained an important survival skill into her brain at last, something Sango had been taught, something she'd learned from painful experience. Even as she cried out and found herself floating sideways Kagome tightened her hold on the bow. If she lost her weapon it was over, there would be nothing she could do.

"See, silly little humans, they always think they're tough once they learn to use that spirit energy of theirs." The woman turned back to her companions, "But they never think they might need more than that, and the never seem to realize just how weak they are."

Kagome pushed herself to her knees, another arrow already moving to replace the one that had been knocked away. Pain brought tears to her eyes, but for the moment she refused to let them fall, there was something more important that she had to do. Her arm protested the resistance of the bow, but she forced it, pulled back with everything she could muster, forced her power into the arrow, prayed it would be enough, and released.

The energy seemed to make the arrow glow, it didn't cackle as before, didn't reach out, but clung to the sharpened tip and wavered with the shaft. She watched it fly, whispering pleas with it to work, to connect, to save her.

The woman cringed as the arrow collided with her mid turn. She staggered back, a look of surprise glued to her features for a moment before they disintegrated in a burst of blue-white light.

"Last chance." Kagome climbed slowly to her feet another arrow already in place, "I'm not messing around here pal, so just let go of her and get out of the way before I decide to make you." Again she hoped she sounded more convincing than she felt.

A small body flew through the air, brown hair whipping violently until the head jerked in response to colliding with a tree trunk. For a moment time seemed to freeze as Kagome's eyes widened and the child's body tumbled slowly to the ground. She gasped, turned to the large green creature that stood staring at her. "How could you? She's just a child!" She pulled back on the arrow, anger raising her temperature, bringing a higher tone to her voice, "You vicious foul…" Try as she might she just couldn't seem to come up with a name bad enough for him, "Monster's like you don't deserve to live." She felt the energy running through her arm, practically running across her body like pin pricks, fueled by anger and disgust it ran over her, gathered at the tip of the arrow in a blinding pink glow. She waited, waited for a moment longer, saw him lumbering closer and nearly held her breath. The air was spiraling around her, pulling at her hair, lifting it from her neck, tugging upward. Then everything stilled, the dust that had been billowing near her feet fell, and Kagome released her arrow.

XXXXX

He'd rejoined the others, having found no sign of Kagome down the street he thought he'd seen her down. They walked in silence, eyes searching and all of them silently wondering where the girl they'd become so fond of so quickly could have possibly gone. They'd been looking for some time now, and there wasn't even a sign of her anywhere, even he with all of his advanced spirit awareness wasn't able to find her. And for some reason that scared Kuwabara a bit.

The minute he'd met Kagome he'd known she was special, not like Yukina was of course, but there was something different about her, something about her energy that made it different from anyone else he'd ever met before. It also made her easy to find, at least when she was nearby, but now… now he couldn't seem to find her anywhere. That coupled with the worried look that Kurama wore when he thought no one was looking meant bad things on the horizon. The only person who seemed unconcerned was Yusuke, but he was sure that it was only an act. At least Kuwabara was hoping it was only an act.

The silence stretched on for another block, broken only by their footsteps and the occasional passing car. No one bothered to speak, so far there was nothing to speak about, and with every step the tension seemed to become heavier.

He froze in the middle of a step when he felt it. The energy washed over him, sending a shiver through his brain and then a tremor across his body. Kuwabara took a deep breath, glanced around, "Either of you two feel that?"

"Yes… though I'm almost afraid of what it might be." Kurama's green eyes were wide, stuck in the same direction that Kuwabara's were. Oddly enough the same direction they'd been going.

"What do you bet it's nothing good, and we find Kagome over there?" Yusuke broke into a run, panic setting over his features at nearly the same instant the Kurama adopted a similar expression and took off after him, but for a long moment Kuwabara could only stare. How could they say that was nothing good? Didn't they feel it? That felt like… it felt like Kagome's energy, but… different somehow, stronger.

"Hey guys… wait up…"

XXXXX

The brilliant light was blinding, painful against the eyes of those looking. Even from here though it was beautiful. A scarlet gaze took in the sight, the way the bow snapped around when the arrow was released from it, the way the arrow wavered in the air even as it flew straight. The power danced along it, whipping and spiraling with such fury the air howled in protest. The wind itself seemed to be forced back from it as it shot forward, energy pooling at the tip as it embedded in the green demon's chest. Then for just a moment everything went still.

XXXXX

"Okay, where'd it go?" The energy had vanished as quickly as it had appeared, seeming to explode for a moment before completely disappearing.

They came to a stop together on a street corner, a pair of green eyes and a pair of brown eyes turning back to the third pair that had been behind them. "Can you still sense it Kuwabara?"

"No… no it's gone."

"I think it came from this way, let's go." Yusuke turned his direction slightly as they cut another corner and ran, his eyes still searching. Now, he was actually beginning to worry.

XXXXX

Kagome groaned softly as she forced herself to stand fully again, her bruised side protesting the agony of it by throbbing painfully, but she made herself ignore it, only squeezed her eyelids closed against it for a second before she caught herself and snapped them open again. Three; there were three. Swallowing nervously she reached for another arrow, only to find nothing there. She started to spin, and then reached for the strap instead, realizing that trying to see her back was a futile attempt. Her hand came down on her shoulder and discovered only her shirt. The quiver was gone, and that meant she had no weapon… not one that she could use anyway. She swallowed again, considered throwing the bow away and quickly decided against it. Even if she couldn't shoot it might still come in handy for something, even if she wasn't exactly sure what.

She turned slowly, eyes searching for a sign of either the third demon that she had yet to see, or the quiver of arrows that she had somehow lost. Maybe she'd gotten lucky and the demon had just run off. Yeah, and maybe she'd learn to fly and grow three inches. Kagome searched carefully with wide eyes, trying to see through the shadows outside the clearing she stood in, letting her gaze slide over the rough forest floor and trees, taking in the shades of brown and fading green. She had to be careful, she had to find the arrows and the demon and get out of here with the…

Kagome gasped and turned toward the girl only to run instantly toward where she rested sprawled against the roots of a tree. "Are you…" Her foot hit something hard that yielded just a little to her forward momentum against the top of her foot. Screeching a little in surprise she threw her arms out in front of her, losing her hold on the bow this time in favor of saving her face from Inuyasha's former best friend… the dirt.

The dirt tore into her knees and the heels of her hands, grinding into the skin. With a grunt of pain Kagome pushed herself upward, turned to see what had tripped her and froze for a moment before spinning around into a sitting position before scooting back with wide eyes.

The tip had caught her foot, the green black scales glinting in the firelight. Her eyes watched the shine for a moment before sliding along the rapidly swelling tail, swallowing as it quickly reached a thickness that was wider than her entire body. Fear lumping in her throat she followed the body, searching for the head that she knew existed but couldn't find before the body vanished from the small clearing. Nervously swallowing for what was likely the fifth time in the last three or four minutes she glanced over her shoulder to the girl still lying behind her. This was getting worse by the moment and she had to get the kid out of here before it was too late. Carefully she began to scoot back, trying to watch what she could of the enormous column of flesh and still watch what was happening behind her as much as possible. "Hey, are you okay back there?" She called softly, her eyes still searching in a panic. When she received no answer Kagome sighed and scooted back another few inches. What if the child was badly injured, what if this… snake thing came after them? Would she be able to get the girl and get away before it caught her? Would she be able to move the child at all? What had she been thinking coming here? Kagome glanced around rapidly before turning onto her knees and trying to push herself back to her feet.

The rough edge of scales slid across the skin of her ankle, and Kagome froze, her stomach leaping upward and twisting in protest, her heart pounding in her throat in fear. Slowly she turned her head over her shoulder, and watched it come closer, felt the weight on her legs increase. With a hint of a scream she surged to her feet and spun to back away from the creature, eyes darting even as she began to spin after every step. "Little girl… um…" There was no way she would be able to carry the girl and get out of this, she should be able to distract the demon while the girl got away though, but for that plan to work she had to wake up the little girl, "You awake yet?"

"I've been awake." The voice hissed over her like a sickening wind again, and Kagome spun toward it, only to find green eyes watching her with slit pupils. She gasped a little and staggered back another step.

"You just… just stay away…"

"You aren't in any position to talk little girl, you can't hit me with one of those arrows you don't have." The enormous body came closer, slithering quietly over the ground. Kagome tried to back away, only to be stopped by the firm pressure of something cool and slightly squishy hitting the back of her legs. She pulled down a gasp that tried to escape her, "Go ahead and be afraid little girl, that's what you should be doing."

The pressure increased against her legs, a similar weight pressing against her back as it yanked her forward, and in seconds she was caught between very heavy coils of squeezing muscle and shifting scales. She cried out as it tightened, effectively halting her attempts to escape for a moment.

"Go ahead… scream, it'll only hurt more in a moment." Sadistic joy vibrated through the low sound, turning the words into nearly a whispered chuckle. Kagome held herself still, biting her lip to keep from giving in and allowing a scream to escape her. As if taking it as a challenge the snake's body tightened.

Helplessly she tried to move against the scales, pulling her body in against itself in an effort to squeeze herself free, an attempt that didn't work. Biting down on another scream Kagome searched for anything she could find to help her escape, one eye squeezed closed against the pain as the body tightened. If she waited any longer her bones were going to be broken.

Heavy muscle closed over her, pulled her deeper into their hold, squeezing so tightly she couldn't hold in a breath. Her shoulder was forced downward, her chin shoved up so that the muscles screamed in protest. Grunting in pain Kagome searched for an escape route, searched for any kind of help that might come. But there was no one, she was on her own here. One eye squeezed closed against the pain as she searched for something, anything to get her out of this one. And then she saw it.

The shaft of the arrow was broken near the end, lying over almost halfway, but still partly attached, just close enough…

She twisted, forced her hand out between the bands of scaly body. Gasping she pushed, shoving her hand as far out of the strangling hold as possible.

"Here, I'll come closer to hear you." The hiss sounded almost against her ear, and Kagome shivered, stilled for a moment before turning her head the small amount she was able to, staring into catlike green eyes that practically glowed at her. The muscles around her constricted further, causing her to bite down on her tongue to keep the sound from escaping her. Her fingers were almost there, she could feel the softness of the fletching bending against her fingers, the smooth wood of the arrow's shaft brushed her fingers, then with a final push she had her hand around it.

With a triumphant cry she yanked, felt the sharp edge come easily out of the soft earth for her. She yanked her arm in before the heavy body could close on her arm and immobilize it. She struggled for less than a moment, dragging the arrow upward across her stomach, felt the sharp corner of the arrowhead scrape through the thin fabric of her shirt and her abdominal muscles clenched in response to the slight pain, trying to give her arm room to move. It took nearly all the effort her body could exert, every muscle protesting against her motions as she forced her arm free of the hold, and brought the tip into the eye that was less than a foot from her.

The scream was still ringing in her ear as she hit the ground, watching the back of the snake's head explode with the power she'd managed to channel into the arrow without realizing. For a long moment she rested on the ground, pulling in breath after breath as she attempted to gather the courage to move. Her body hurt still, but as far as she could tell nothing was broken. Taking a deep breath she pushed herself slowly to her feet, smiling just a little. She'd done it… all on her own she'd managed to live through the situation and even save someone else. Her eyes left the dead demon and went back to girl laying on the ground beside a tree. Kagome sighed and staggered toward the place, dropped to her knees beside the girl at last. "Hey, are you alright?" She caught the girl's shoulders, gently turned her over and froze as orange eyes met hers and fangs glinted in the light.

"You just killed two of my best men."

"You're men… what are you talking about?" She fell back as the child stood, staring up at her.

"The green one I wouldn't have minded you killing, but the other two…" The demon girl's hair swished as she shook her head, "well I suppose I should thank you, if they weren't able to kill one human girl they clearly weren't very effective were they? As a reward I'll let you die quickly." The knife she withdrew glinted dreadfully in the light. Kagome moved back a little, "Now… hold still…"

She didn't have any weapons, and she didn't know how to fight. There was no way she would survive a fist fight with a demon, even a little one and Kagome knew it. She also knew that there was no way she would be able to get up and run before the child reached her. Silently she berated herself for her stupidity and squeezed her eyes tightly closed, waiting, accepting that there was nothing she could do. After surviving the three demons she'd known about she was going to die from the one she'd been trying to save. She held her breath, her heart slowing inexplicably. It wouldn't be long now, just another second, time enough for one last breath, but she couldn't take it.

-_SHINK-_

The air she'd been holding in left as a gasp, her eyelids snapped open as her chin snapped her face upward and her eyes were burned by a scarlet gaze.

_Okay, another hated author note. So sorry, I didn't realize my scene change markers were being dropped when I uploaded the file until someone pointed it out… trying to change them, but it may take a while. New chapters will be marked, with 'X's this time. Again really sorry._


	9. Revealing

Something was dripping softly, a pattern of sound that slowed by each drip.

She'd expected it to hurt, for there to be a blinding pain and a then a slow slip into darkness. She didn't expect for there to be… nothing, except those eyes staring at her. She blinked once before her eyes moved over her own body, searching for blood they didn't find. Slowly Kagome pushed herself to her feet and turned toward him. She was trembling. "How… how did you find me?"

"Like it was that hard." He crossed his arms in red sleeves and glared at her, "What? You think just cause you ran off I wouldn't be able to find you? It isn't like I've never tracked you further than this before."

"I… guess that's… true…" She backed away a little, "What do you want Inuyasha?"

"You know what I want Kagome. Just give me the damn jewel already." His oddly red eyes followed her as she moved toward the far side of the clearing.

"Inuyasha… you know that I…"

"Save it Kagome, just give me the jewel and I'll let you go back to your friends."

"You're… going to try and stop me from going back?" Kagome stared at his eyes, shocked by the red in them. She'd only seen his eyes turn that shade when he lost control, but he was carrying on a conversation with her, not wildly trying to kill everything in sight. There was something strange about all of this, but Kagome could barely stand through her fear, let alone try to understand what was wrong with him. "Why do you keep doing this Inuyasha? What do you want?"

"You know what I want. You run off for weeks at a time, with the damn jewel no less and you think I'm just going to sit around waiting for you to come running back? How stupid are you?" He advanced on her, his knuckles popping threateningly as he clenched and unclenched his fist, "Just give me the damn jewel already, you never could fight and you still don't have a shot at beating me."

"Inuyasha…" She watched him closely, tears starting to well in her eyes again, "What's wrong with you? What happened? Why are you being this way?" He'd always been harsh, even mean occasionally, but since before the jewel had been shattered he hadn't ever attacked her, hadn't ever tried to hurt her, then why was he advancing on her now, just as he had in her room a few weeks ago, with those same glowing red eyes.

"You know something Kagome, I'm tired of listening to all your complaining. You didn't want to jewel to begin with, and you still don't. Just give it here before I have to take it from you."

"I… I can't." He took a step toward her and Kagome shifted back from him, knowing that even if she ran he would catch her. She was no match for his speed.

"Damn it Kagome." His red eyes shifted, taking back their normal golden tint, "Can't you see what's going on you idiot? Get ou…" He grimaced slightly just before his snarling face took back its previously blank expression, the eyes glowing that ominous red again, "If you won't give me the jewel then I'll take it by force." He surged forward, his claws sweeping for her, the tips glowing with golden power that somehow seemed darker than it had been.

This time Kagome screamed. She threw herself backward and to the side away from him, her arms coming up in an attempt to block her face and chest even though she knew it wouldn't do her any good. If he landed a hit his claws would easily go through her, bone and all.

She collided with a tree trunk, the sharp impact quickly replaced by scrapes as she slid slowly toward the ground, the bark catching against her skin as she went. "Inu… Yasha… pl… please." She breathed, closing her eyes tightly as the pain continued to blur her vision. The moment stretched as she waited, again, for the blow that would end her life. It would only be a moment now, but she couldn't face it, couldn't see proof of what _Inuyasha_ was about to do to her. She didn't need to look anyway.

She knew what he would be doing, how he would be holding his hand, the look that would be on his face. Kagome wished that she would see his soft golden eyes filled with regret and sadness, any show of regret that she could find, but she knew it wouldn't be there, just as it hadn't been when he'd turned on Sota two weeks ago. She'd saved her brother in a panic, but it wouldn't work for her, that power wasn't something she could control after all.

An arm descended, the wind whistled in a howl of agony and disgust. There was a clang, a hiss of pain following a flurry of motion that could barely be heard, let alone seen, and eerie red eyes were singed by a natural crimson gaze.

XXXXX

"This shouldn't be so damn hard." Yusuke grumbled between panting breaths, "Damn it, I'm going to make Botan get me one of those compass things to track Kagome so we don't ever have to do this shi…"

"You know Urameshi if you just took care of your sister better we wouldn't be…"

"What was that Kuwabara?"

"She shouldn't be off this time of night on her own. If she had a man for a brother he would have gone with her."

"Yeah, well you were there too Kuwabara why didn't you go after her sooner?"

As the inevitable fist fight began Kurama sighed and looked away. They would never get anywhere like this. Kagome was going to be harder to find the longer they waited and something in him whispered that it was urgent that he find her.

A soft scent teased his sensitive nostrils, weaving around him as his eyelids dropped half way and ghostly hands banished most of the tension that had claimed him. The first step he took was slow, nearly hesitant. For a moment he nearly shivered, then his eyes snapped open and he was already running, the breeze whipping the smell around him, pulling him helplessly forward.

XXXXX

"I don't know who you are, but get out of my way." A foot scraped against the hard dirt.

A soft chuckle was nearly swallowed by the leaves that shivered overhead, "Coming closer is not something I would do."

"Yeah, well I'm not you…" Another scrape of skin against dirt, "And I'm busy with Kagome right now, but I'd be happy to take you down after."

"The girl is the least of your concerns." The tone of his voice lowered slightly, darkened by annoyance that he was nearly able to hide.

Kagome stiffened, recognizing the voice. Slowly she forced one eyelid up, then the second quickly followed as she stared up at the form standing between her and Inuyasha, wondering where the black clad man had come from. She hadn't even noticed he was nearby until he spoke.

"Look… runt; get the hell out of my way before I take you apart."

"You're welcome to attempt it." The sword in his hand shimmered brightly as he twisted it slightly in his grasp, letting a glint travel the length of the blade before bringing it slowly back as he altered his grip yet again.

"Like that little sword's gonna be enough to stop me." Silver hair fluttered down as he threw aside the cap she just noticed he'd been wearing. At least he wasn't running around showing the world exactly what he was… which was odd considering he'd come here to take the jewel and try to kill the person who normally made him wear that hat. Kagome considered him for a moment. There was something weird going on here. She watched him move slowly forward, saw that telltale twitch of his hand again.

"Inuyasha stop this!" She found her feet suddenly, moved just past the black haired man that had been standing in front of her. Yusuke's distinctly demon friend, whose name she knew, but couldn't remember clearly for the moment with how intently Inuyasha was demanding her attention. If she didn't do something they were going to fight and that meant someone getting hurt, and she couldn't let that happen.

"Shut up Kagome. I'm going to deal with this bastard, then I'll get back to you." The still red eyed half demon stepped forward again; his hand shifting at his side in that way that meant an attack was coming.

"That's poor planning. You won't be _getting back_ to anyone… or any_thing _for that matter." Hiei's red eyes considered a twitching dog ear before dropping back to snarling face.

"You're pretty damn cocky you little…" The words died to a muffled groan as Inuyasha flew inexplicably backward only to crash very painfully into a tree. Kagome blinked twice before glancing at the clenched fist the demon beside her was dropping to his side. He had to have hit him. Kagome felt herself stiffen tightly, she hadn't even sensed movement, let alone seen it. The rustle of heavy fabric brought her eyes to the spot the demon beside her was staring at.

Inuyasha's clawed hand rose to his face, brushing at a thin trail of blood that had leaked out of the corner of his mouth, only smearing the red liquid across the lightly tanned skin of his face. He was smiling as his hand dropped to his side, and a shiver went across Kagome's spine when he chuckled. There was something wrong with it, even though she couldn't quite figure out why. It just didn't sound like him. "Well, it's been a while since anyone made me bleed. This should be interesting."

"Hardly." Hiei considered him coldly, slipping the sword easily away. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye for barely a second, "Stay out of the way." He murmured, and ahead of where he stood the one she'd called Inuyasha laughed softly.

"Kagome's never been able to do that. Why don't you just let me deal with her and then we can finish this." The way he held his hand now seemed wrong, the fist held up near his head, fingers curled into the palm toward his face and his forearm displayed. She couldn't remember him ever doing that before, but he must have the gesture seemed so… familiar.

"I've stated before, you'll be _dealing_ with me first."

This was bad. Kagome had been between enough angry demons to be able to tell when a fight was going to be serious, and this had all the warning signs, it also meant that she was in the danger zone as much as either of them, and she had no way of defending herself or really of staying out of the way. They were both fast, and she knew that Inuyasha tended to get reckless when he was fighting, she couldn't imagine that this demon, despite the fact that he'd saved her, would be all that concerned about keeping her out of the line of fire. Things weren't looking up for Kagome.

They had started before she could finish her thoughts, but oddly it wasn't Inuyasha who charged. He merely stood on the other side of the clearing, waiting while the shorter demon got to him, blocking his attacks, though admittedly he took nearly as many blows as he managed to dodge, perhaps more Kagome could barely see that he was moving, let alone exactly how many punches he was throwing. This wasn't going to end well.

Her suspicions were confirmed when Inuyasha screamed. The sound froze her blood in an instant and sent a shudder through her. She'd only ever heard him yell like that when he was injured so badly it nearly killed him, but she couldn't see any blood. However when she finally got a look at his face Kagome's freezing problem was escalated at terror hit her. The red eyes had been bad enough, but now…

The marks that appeared on his face were nearly reminiscent of his older brother, but they were jagged, and Kagome knew what they meant, knew what was coming as he smiled that way that revealed his lengthened fangs and held up claws that were also longer than they had been moments before. The other demon however seemed to be only mildly surprised as he jumped back, sword now at the ready as he watched carefully.

The half demon, now in his transformed state threw himself forward, his claws slashing mindlessly at the smaller man staring at him. He brought the sword up to block, and stared in horror as the blade was sliced cleanly into segments. He turned, his red eyes widening a little as the claws came toward him.

"No, get back!" She was moving without meaning to, her feet carrying her as quickly as she could across the clearing even though she knew she would never get there in time, her hand reaching out she felt the strange power building again, the same as when she'd tried to stop him from harming Sota, but somehow… she was sure it wouldn't be enough to stop him this time, it had only thrown him slightly before and now that he had been taken over by his demon blood she couldn't be sure it would do any good. Either way she was moving, even as his hand came down, the brilliant pink and white beams escaping her palm drawing his attention from the demon he'd been about to slice in to. Seeing this distraction the second demon chose to take advantage of it, jumping up with what remained of the blade he'd been using, just long enough that it would be able to slice off the half demon's head with a little effort. "No!" She threw herself forward again, praying that she would get there in time. There was something wrong with Inuyasha, but even with him acting like this she couldn't just let someone kill him, but even as she got there and felt her hand press against him, heard him hiss in pain she knew he wouldn't fall fast enough. "Inuyasha… sit!"

The force of it yanked her down to the ground with him, sending yet another shock of pain through her and knocking the air out of her body. Lying there, trying to pull air into her protesting lungs that didn't want to hold it all she could do was wonder why she hadn't thought about that before. She squeezed her eyes closed tightly and groaned as she pushed herself up from the ground, rubbing the spot on her back where the collision had been hardest. Maybe she should have thought about sitting him before she'd grabbed him.

Hearing the half demon start stirring again she backed away, fixing her wide eyes on him again, hardly noticing that the other set of red eyes were still glued to her rather than the half demon she was watching so intently. Squeaking a little she climbed to her feet and rushed back from him, knowing that trouble was coming her way now. She held her breath as he shook his head, then looked up and her breath left as a sharp exhale when she met amber eyes.

"K…Kagome…" He struggled to his feet and looked at her, rubbing the side of his head again, "Where are we?"

"Inuyasha… you don't…" She swallowed. He had to be trying to trick her, but he wasn't that clever, she jumped when he came toward her, "Stay back."

"Oh… Kagome… I'm…" He covered his eyes with a hand, stared at her through his fingers, "You've got to stay away from…"

"Stay away from you? I've been trying Inuyasha." She glared at him suddenly, not liking that he had made it sound like she was the one looking for him, "You keep coming after me."

"Kagome…"

"Just stay away from me Inuyasha. Leave and this time don't come looking for me again." It was hard, sending him away when he was looking at her with those eyes she'd been longing to see earlier. She had to force away the person who was probably her best friend, who also had attempted to kill her twice in the last two weeks. Her life just couldn't help being complicated.

"Kagome…" He looked at her for a moment, then turned and vanished into the trees, followed by the annoyed red eyes of the demon he'd been fighting with earlier.

She stood perfectly still, her eyes on the place he'd vanished from as she tried to sense his location, trying to tell if he stopped. After a long moment she found herself falling. The air whistled past her ears and she barely noticed yet another pain as her kneecaps collided with the hard forest floor, her hands dropping to rest limply on her thighs as she fell back onto her heels and stared at her upturned palms. Tears pricked her eyes, but she held them back. There was something else she had to do.

"Are you after it too?" Her voice was low, hardly a whisper, but she knew that he would be able to hear her.

"After what? What could you have that I might have any interest in?"

She looked up at where he lingered on the other side of the clearing, surprised to find him watching her. "Then… why are you out here?"

"Any demon within three miles felt that power surge of yours." He murmured looking away from her at last.

"So, you came to see what caused it? How did you know it was me and not Inuyasha?"

He made a soft scoffing sound and threw something toward her. Knowing somehow that he had no intention of harming her Kagome didn't even flinch. She watched him for a second longer before dropping her gaze to the item that had landed in front of her. She nearly chuckled as she reached for it, her fingertips running gently over the clipped feather fletching. One of her arrows, "So, I guess you saw my not so nimble exit from the building then huh?" She couldn't help blushing at the idea, "I'm not exactly the most graceful person in the world sometimes am I?" He scoffed again and turned away at the obvious understatement. "Alright, what do you want?"

"What?" He turned back to her with wide eyes that returned to normal after only a moment.

"To not tell Yusuke and the others… what is it going to take?" She demanded softly, her eyes glued to the arrow in her hands.

"It makes no difference to me whether they know about you or not."

Kagome looked at him for a long moment, "Well it makes a big difference to me." She looked down again, not liking how intently he was staring into her eyes, like he was trying to read her mind or something. "So just tell me already."

"Again, what could you have that I might possibly want?"

"Well…" She clicked through things in her mind, and slowly she was coming up with nothing, "That's why you're supposed to tell me what sort of thing you might want."

"Your skills at bribery are sadly lacking."

"Well it's not like I go around trying to bribe people you know." She sighed, "I just don't want them to know about any of… this."

"You don't want them to know about you. This jewel he was looking for, what is it."

"It's… nothing all that important. Inuyasha just… thinks it's his."

"Even stupid humans aren't willing to die for nothing." He murmured, watching her closely.

Sensing the danger of this situation and further arousing his curiosity Kagome sighed, considering her options. She could tell him, but there was a chance that he would just decide he wanted to jewel for himself, and she had no way of fending him off. "Look… it's a really long story…"

"Regardless I'll take the explanation."

She smiled, realizing that there was no way she was getting out of this one, and he had saved her life after all. He really didn't seem all that bad. "Could it maybe wait…?" She cringed a little at the glare he gave her, "I'll tell you, I promise, it's just…" She looked down at her hands again, cringing again at the dirt and blood on her, "I'd like to go clean up, and I left the others kind of suddenly so they're probably… going to be really mad at me and I don't want Yusuke to be waiting up for me or something." She tried smiling again and received only an annoyed glare. "I'm not lying. I'll tell you, but… you can't tell any of them."

"I don't take orders from humans."

"Fine then. Please." She looked down for a moment, "Please don't tell them."

"Hn. Try again."

"Alright fine then." She slowly pushed herself to her feet, "You're friends with Yusuke and Kazuma right?"

"Hardly."

"Sure you are, or at least you spend a lot of time with them." She smiled a little, "So I'm sure that they've done something to annoy you." From the slight growl he gave she could tell she was right, "So I'm also assuming that you might want some kind of payback?"

"And you would be willing to help me in that pursuit."

"Well I wouldn't help you hurt them or anything, but… I have something that will help you shut them up the next time they start in." She waited through the silence, saw him narrow his eyes suspiciously at her.

"And what might this object be?"

"Just a very embarrassing picture of the two of them. Interested?"

He paused for a moment, his eyes holding her gaze for a second before he looked away. Ignoring her protest he began walking, slowly enough that she could easily follow. Kagome sighed and fell into step beside him as she retraced her earlier path out of the woods. "So it's your height right?" She smiled when he only looked at her this time. "What they pick on you about. We're about the same height and they never shut up about how short I am, so they're probably even worse about it with you because you're a guy."

"You talk entirely too much."

"And you don't talk enough so we've got a pretty good balance going here huh?" He ignored her again and Kagome glanced at him, "You're a tough nut to crack, but I have a feeling that eventually we're going to be pretty good friends."

"I sincerely doubt that."

XXXXX

He finally came to a stop just short of a gate, pausing to take in the surrounding area before continuing. It was a park, just a small one that seemed to be mostly unused. He could make out no playgrounds and only one bench along the edge of the single gravel path. He considered bypassing it, but the wind and that ghostly scent pulled at him, forced him to continue. His eyes swept across the gathered darkness, taking in the poorly maintained lawns and the thick trees growing beyond them. He was about to turn away when he found it, a discarded bundle of brown fabric resting against one of the trees. Unable to stop himself and ignoring the voices calling his name Kurama set off into the park, toward what he knew was her coat. He was half way there when the smell of her intensified and brought him to a halt, then a ghostly giggle carried the wind to him.

She seemed to glow slightly in the moonlight that washed over her, her pale skin nearly luminescent against the darkness behind her. The wind shifted, bringing that delicate and unique smell that had lured him here mercilessly to him once again, trailing her hair forward and then pulling it back across the skin of her bare neck. The skirt she wore was pulled by the wind, forcing the fabric to dance around her legs. She was smiling and when she glanced to the side he couldn't help following her eyes, taking his off the angelic image that inspired this peaceful feeling settling over him and found himself looking into the harsh eyes of a smirking demon.

"Kurama… what the… hell… man?" Yusuke nearly fell over, but braced himself on his knees, listening to Kuwabara run up to where they had stopped with the grace of an elephant.

"What was… that all… about?"

"It seems that we weren't the first to locate her." He murmured, watching as one of Kagome's small hands retrieved her coat before she stood and turn to look at them. He followed shock registering and quickly being chased by what could only be determination, then worry as she glanced toward Hiei and back.

"What the…" Yusuke's mouth had fallen open, his finger shaking as he pointed at the two, his sister walking next to a demon he'd seen kill with complete disregard on several occasions as if it were the most natural thing in the world was enough to send him into a temporary shock.

Kuwabara however, was not silenced by his surprise. "Hiei! What the hell are you doing out here with Kagome Shorty?"

Kurama stiffened, practically able to smell Hiei's annoyance and felt himself shivering a little as Kagome's obvious nervous energy swept over him. He wondered what she was doing here with Hiei himself, wondered what might have been going on between the two, and strangely some of his ideas were starting to get him very annoyed with the demon that was still smirking at him.

"That's none of your business idiot." Hiei moved past the girl toward them, not pausing as he drew up alongside a still staring Yusuke.

"None of my… what did you just call me Hamster legs?"

"I knew it." Kagome laughed softly beside him and Kurama couldn't help looking at her slightly confused.

"I said it's none of your concern… idiot."

"Yeah well it is my concern." Yusuke turned between the two, "So just what in the hell is going on out here? What are you doing in the woods with my sister at this time of night you little…?" Carried away by his anger Yusuke grabbed the demon by the collar, lifting him slightly off the ground.

"Yusuke…" Kagome rushed forward, catching his arm, "Stop that…"

"Fine," He released his hold, "But I still want my answer damn it."

He saw the look that went between them, even if the others didn't. Her eyes pleading and Hiei's calculating. Then the fire demon smiled slightly, "I went for a walk and came across her lost in the woods."

"Yeah, I don't know that I ever would have gotten out if Hiei hadn't found me." She smiled just a little, but it trembled slightly on her lips. Kurama stiffened, well aware that they were lying, even if hers was likely a half truth. Kagome wasn't the type to lie, at least not and be happy about it, and with all the lies she'd been attempting to tell something interesting must have happened in the forest. He could hardly wait to hear about it, surely Hiei would tell him.

"Sure. Come on guys let's get home. This place gives me the creeps." He murmured under his breath.

Kurama watched as they walked away, Yusuke leading and Kuwabara following him closely. Hiei paused for a moment, turning to the young woman who stood beside him. "I accept you offer. This picture of yours…"

"You've got it Hiei." She whispered, "I knew they'd be on you about the height thing." She smiled, "Those guys really need to learn to pick on something else in people. It's not like we can help how tall we are right?" She was smiling, but Hiei just scoffed and started walking.

He watched her for a long moment as she stared after the retreating forms, noticing for the first time all the smudges of dirt on her skin and the scratches on her knees. She shivered and pulled her coat on, cringing and pulling a piece of a leaf from her hair. He heard her sigh.

"Kagome… are you all right?"

She jumped a little, having forgotten he was there. "Shuichi… why are you always asking me that?"

"It seems like I always have reason to." He glanced pointedly at the still bleeding scrape on her knee, "Did something happen to you?"

"I wandered off the path and tripped, that's all." She smiled again, and looked away, hoping that he would leave it at that, but knowing that he wouldn't. Shuichi was nice, and she liked being around him, but there was something about talking to him sometimes, she couldn't help feeling she was being interrogated. "Oh…" Her face turned slightly pink in embarrassment, "I guess I owe you an apology for taking off like that…"

"Think nothing of it." He smiled down at her, enjoying the way her cheeks flushed just a little, absently he reached out to touch her silken hair, saw her stiffen and considered pulling back, but thankfully a small leaf gave him an excuse. He brushed his fingers against the glossy strands and withdrew the brown material, held it out for her to see, "I'm glad you are in relatively good condition."

Kagome smiled a little, reaching to take the leaf he was holding without thinking about it. She couldn't help smiling a little and shifting her eyes away from his as their fingers brushed. A shiver rushed over her. "So… you were worried about me?"

She met his gaze and he was momentarily lost to it, those emotional brown eyes that held so many secrets, had the answers to the puzzle he'd been attempting to put together for the last two weeks. Brown eyes that were just… pretty. He saw her nip lightly at her lower lip, and became engrossed with those as well, the soft coral pink tissue holding his attention even as he leaned toward her.

"HEY! You two coming or what?" Kuwabara thundered, waving almost frantically over at them.

"Oh … of course…" Kagome seemed momentarily frozen, but seemed to get over it quickly. She smiled at him, her blush a little darker now and began walking.

Kurama couldn't help falling in step beside her. "We were all worried about you." He murmured, and saw her smile from the corner of his eye. Even that small of a smile was dazzling. He shook himself mentally, wondering what was coming over him. The girl was hiding something, and now she was hiding something with Hiei, and all he could seem to do was wonder if she tasted as good as she smelled, or if she would have actually let him kiss her. But even as he tried to banish the thoughts his arm brushed hers and a shiver went across his skin.


	10. Complications

He didn't believe a word of it. Kagome was sure of that. Not because he had told her so of course, but because it was an impossible story to believe, even if he was a demon her tale sounded far more farfetched than his existence. She could hardly blame him though, there were days she thought it was a dream and she'd lived through the whole thing. But still it would have been nice if he'd said something, even if just to call her crazy. Kagome however had been around enough difficult demons to know that that was probably too much to ask.

She leaned forward against the low wall ringing the balcony, shivering at the cold tile that pressed against her exposed arms as she stared at the lights glittering against the darkness of the late night hours. She glanced from the corner of her eye to where he lounged several feet away on that same low wall, leaning against the side of the building with his arm resting against one raised knee. His eyes were pointed in her direction, but she couldn't tell if he was watching her or looking past her. For the last two nights it had been like this, ever since the woods. The first night she'd tried to lie to him, but he'd seen through it almost instantly and had left her no choice. She'd told him almost everything, being careful to gloss over the importance of the jewel, after all as much as she might have wanted to Kagome knew that she didn't know him well enough to know if she could trust him completely, and the jewel's power was very enticing. She'd only known a few people who could resist it, and she knew that she couldn't stand against this demon if he decided that he wanted it.

"The half demon…" His voice made her jump a little, and Kagome found herself turning back to face him this time, crossing her arms in defense against the intensity of his gaze, "You claim he's your _friend_?"

"Well, yeah." Kagome dropped her arms now. Questions meant he was at least considering that her story might be true. That was a good sign right?

"You're choice in friends seems to be lacking."

"What do you mean by that?" Kagome nearly bit her tongue after the snapped reply came fluttering out of her mouth, but froze at the look he gave her, suddenly found it very hard to meet his red eyes.

"You're so called friend is attempting to murder you." Hiei chuckled humorlessly, looking away from her to the buildings glittering at them.

"It's not that!" She cringed away as his stare snapped back to her, wondering if she was going too far, wondering how he would react to her snapping at him in this way. If he was anything like many of the demons she'd met he'd have been just as happy to kill her as he was to look at her now, or ignore her existence a few moments ago. "It's not… he doesn't want to kill me."

"Then it seems his claws gave me the wrong impression."

"It's just…" She looked down, her hands formed into fists at her sides, the nails she'd carefully filed the day before biting painfully into her palms. "There's something wrong with him. I don't know what it is yet, but…" She shook her head and turned away from him, "I'm hoping by the time I go back it'll have gotten better, or that maybe I can come up with something to do about it."

"Go back?" He demanded sharply, brought her eyes quickly to him.

"Well yeah… I'm going home in a few weeks."

"You truly are his sister. That sort of plan reeks of Yusuke's idiocy."

"What do you mean by that?" She snapped now, fixing her attention on him fully again and this time not caring if she upset him. For the moment she wasn't certain which she was more upset about, the implication that she was stupid, the one that Yusuke was, or just the criticism of her plan. She chose to go with the plan, hoping that it was just more stupid demon rambling about how pathetic humans were in comparison to them. "Okay then, if my plan is so dumb, what would you do in my situation?"

"Kill him."

She stared for a moment. He said it so casually, almost as if he was just saying hello. Kagome felt herself cringing inwardly at that coldness. Surely he didn't mean it; it couldn't have been that simple. "You're… kidding right? That's some demented joke or something."

"No."

She swallowed and her eyes flinched away from his. "You wouldn't have any trouble killing your friend?"

"I don't have friends."

"Then why did you want the picture?" She looked at him when he started to turn away, his expression saying very clearly that he wanted nothing further to do with this conversation. "If what you're saying is true why didn't you just kill them for picking on you?"

"Their pathetic teasing is hardly worthy of such efforts."

"But Inuyasha's is? You saw him; he can't control himself, or whatever it is that's happening to him."

"All the more reason to end his pathetic existence."

"No it isn't!" She glared at him for a moment before looking away, "I don't know what's wrong with him yet, so I can't fix it, but I also can't be around him for a while…" She looked down and away from him now, "Inuyasha doesn't deserve to die just because something bad happened to him. I nearly killed him once when someone put some kind of spell on me… and he never even laid a hand on me. I owe him… I have to make this right again."

"And if you cannot _fix_ it? Then what will you do?"

She hadn't expected it, the question she'd been asking herself since deciding that there was something wrong with Inuyasha that was beyond his control. What if she couldn't fix it? What would she do if she was wrong? Kagome sighed, and this time she didn't flinch away from his eyes, "I don't know Hiei, but… I have to try. If there's anything I can do to save him, or at least help him… I have to do it."

"You're a fool."

"Maybe, but I'd do the same thing for anyone." She turned back to the city, still surprised by the view that was so different from the one she had at home every time she looked at it despite having been here for a week, "No one deserves to suffer and if there's anything I can do to help I have to do it. Even if it's someone who thinks I'm wasting my time or no one else thinks I should bother with."

Before she realized it he was standing beside her and she could feel him looking at her, but didn't turn into that calculating gaze this time. He was making up his mind about something, and there was nothing else that she could do about it. Kagome hesitated for a long moment, nearly jumped when he turned and leaned against the wall beside her with his arms crossed, "I'd do the same for you… you know." She murmured, unable to help herself.

He only scoffed for a moment, and then his shoulders dropped almost as if with a silent sigh. "You really are an idiot, even for a human." But there was no judgmental harshness in his voice when he said it, "You'll get yourself killed some day with these stupid ideals."

Kagome smiled just a little. "Yeah maybe… I guess I'll just have to hope I have a friend who'll remind me of that before I do anything too stupid."

Beside her Hiei scoffed and looked away.

XXXXX

It was maddening. The second evening was drawing to a close and there was still no news from Hiei, who seemed to be avoiding him for some reason. Something had happened in the forest, something that had Kagome and Hiei together and keeping secrets. Secrets that he wanted desperately to help keep, just so he would know what they were. It was practically cruel. And he was somewhat certain that Hiei at least was doing it on purpose. Surely this torture was something the other demon would find amusing, but why would Kagome trust her secrets to Hiei, whom she'd only seen a few times and barely said a word to, and not to him? Something drastic had to have happened, particularly if Hiei was keeping secrets with her. That seemed very out of character. But then, they all seemed a bit out of character when it came to her. Kurama knew that he was no exception.

Perhaps he should have just followed Hiei's advice and simply asked. Perhaps he still could, after all his plan of getting close enough to her to figure something out wasn't working as well as he'd hoped, and Hiei must have figured something out, that was the only explanation for that smirk he'd been wearing, the one that was somehow smugger than his normal smirk… unless they were keeping another secret that had nothing to do with the unusual items she was hiding, or the spiritual energy that came from her that was so different from the others he'd encountered. But what else could they possibly be keeping secret? What could have happened to have Kagome covered in dirt and leaves like she'd been… rolling around… on the…forest floor. The curve his thoughts had suddenly taken had Kurama freezing in the middle of a step, green eyes widening almost painfully. Surely not; it just wasn't possible. Hiei would think such entanglements with a human below him, and hadn't Kagome been furious at the very suggestion that she might be one of _those_ girls?

He forced off the ridiculous thoughts and made his way down the street once more, hands tucked carefully into his pockets; head down as he watched the sidewalk just ahead of his feet through his bangs. Kurama allowed his feet to pick his path as he focused his energy on keeping the idiotic ideas from filling his mind once more.

The wind pushed his hair back and he couldn't help lifting his face into it, closing his eyes against the cold air and drawing a slow breath in an attempt to analyze the scents it carried. His eyelids lifted slowly as the smell filled his lungs, something unbearably familiar and sweet, the only scent that could bring this strange tightness to his chest and force his brain to go instantly blank. He knew it even before his eyes recognized what they had settled on.

Even in the dim light he was able to see every detail of her, how the wind pulled her hair past her face over the wall surrounding the balcony, the soft smile on her gentle and delicate features. He could see her how her dark eyes sparkled and how her eyelashes fluttered just a little, so dark against her pale skin. Her coral pink lips would be tipped up at the corners, or maybe trembling since she seemed to be slipping back into that sadness he'd noticed around her again. That sadness he was rapidly discovering he hated. His eyes swept over her small frame that he shouldn't have been able to see so clearly from where he was standing, and a small smile pulled at one corner of his mouth as he watched her lean forward against the wall, and he almost hoped she would see him, would acknowledge that he was there. That was when his eyes found it, a small blur of black that rapidly solidified into a shape beside her, dark clothes and black hair. Hiei.

He couldn't move suddenly as the air left his lungs and refused to return, leaving him to stare from where he stood down the block, hoping now that she wouldn't see him lingering in the shadows, his brain whirling in scattered circles. What was Hiei doing with her at this time of night? Maybe he'd been wrong; maybe they were having some form of clandestine meeting under her brother's nose just to avoid detection. Maybe there was something more, after all he wasn't the only one drawn to Kagome, Yusuke and Kuwabara hardly left her alone, though Yusuke was her brother, however he and Kuwabara now behaved more like her best friends, and he was entertaining some strange tendencies toward her lately, perhaps it wasn't so outlandish that Hiei would be pulled to her in some way as well. But why did the image bother him so greatly? Sweet Kagome standing there with a demon he knew to be an emotionless killer when the situation called for it? That innocent, intoxicating girl so close to a demon he'd seen bathed in blood, her gentle brown eyes that were always sparkling even when sad meeting the red orbs he'd seen dance for joy with the pleasure of a difficult kill. It was disturbing.

He stopped himself from shaking his head as he prepared to take another step. If Hiei knew anything about this little mystery he was working on he would tell him, it was likely he was just trying to get answers from her as well, and if there was anything else going on between them there was nothing he could do about that, it was none of his business after all. Then why was he depressed about it?

XXX

Normally she noticed him far sooner than this and this time he wasn't even trying to hide his presence from her. He didn't take the time to appreciate that image she made this time, her eyes glued to the sky over the trees only a short distance away with that wistful thoughtful expression that had become common on her face over the last few days. He only wondered for a moment what she was thinking about, considered for less than an instant simply leaving her in peace, and resolutely made his way to seat himself on the bench beside her. He was almost surprised when she flashed him a quick smile and went back to her thoughts, her eyes unfocused on the trees themselves now, and for the first time in his recent memory Kurama struggled to find the words to begin a conversation.

The silence stretched and settled, banishing unease temporarily from its presence as they sat there. He followed her gaze, half expecting to see red eyes staring back at hers from the trees, after all he'd noticed Hiei hovering around her recently, lending credibility to his strange concern that there might be some kind of developing attachment between them. However he knew that the trees were empty.

"Sorry, guess I was sort of zoning out there." She turned to him with that brilliant smile and he nearly felt his heart stopping.

"That's alright, I don't mind." He found himself returning her grin as he turned away, and the silence settled over them again.

"So, what were you doing out so late last night?"

The question froze him for a moment before he turned to her, that small disarming smile settling on his lips. So she'd seen him watching her then? This could end in an interesting way. "I was having some trouble sleeping and decided to take a walk."

"Yeah, well I hope your late night walk ended better than mine did." She mumbled, looking away for a moment before she seemed to catch herself and looked back with another of her heart stopping smiles, "I waved, but I guess you didn't see me."

"I saw you were with Hiei and I didn't want to interrupt."

"I wouldn't have minded." Kagome looked away, "I couldn't sleep either and Hiei was just around."

"He seems to be around quite a bit, it appears he likes you."

"We've kind of become friends over the last few days, not that he'll ever admit it."

Friends? "Well, that is how he is." So they were becoming friends? "You must have had quite an eventful walk through the woods."

"You could say that." She looked down, biting down on the inside of her bottom lip again.

"You seem to have recovered from whatever happened."

"Oh… I… just fell down a hill… I got sort of turned around and I… slipped." She threw together the cover story she'd found upon exiting the forest several days earlier, maybe she'd been a little too hard on Gramps, it was hard to keep up cover stories even when she was making them up herself, she'd have to remember to do something nice for him when she went home to the shrine.

"You're very fortunate that Hiei was there to lead you out then. It would have been a shame for you to be lost in there."

"Well you guys were coming to find me weren't you? I'm sure I would have been okay." She smiled over at him again, but it vanished once she met his eyes, "I guess I would have owed you, since Yusuke and Kazuma were only coming after me because you insisted."

"It was hardly anything."

"Still…" She couldn't pull her eyes away from his, their gazes locked helplessly with each other's. "Thanks for worrying about me." She should have looked away, but Kagome felt frozen, her eyes held in place by his that were almost drilling into her. Inwardly she shivered, but couldn't bring herself to look away from him. She swallowed almost nervously in an attempt to break the spell settling over her, but it did not good.

Her cheeks had turned a soft pink color that was rapidly becoming red and it took him a moment to realize why. Even as the extended eye contact and closeness registered Kurama for some reason couldn't bring himself to look away. He knew that he should have, that he was making her uncomfortable, but as he stared into her eyes all he could do was lean closer, one hand coming up to brush back a few strands of her hair before settling on her cheek. She seemed frozen, her eyes darting to his hand before coming back to his wider than before. Her lips trembled and he couldn't help a trace of a smile that quirked the corner of his mouth as it was pulled helplessly toward hers.

Her heart jumped into her throat as he leaned closer, her eyelids fighting to fall closed even as the sharp edge of panic kept them open. Her brain spun in its blankness. She should be pulling back, telling him to stop it or just knocking him away, but she didn't want to, and that was an odd idea for her. Even when Inuyasha had been that close it had been unnerving, but sitting here with Shuichi she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to actually be kissed by someone, no what it would be like to be kissed by him. It wasn't the first time she'd wondered, when he looked at her like that with that strange glint in his eyes that made her squirm inside. A few days ago when he'd looked at her like this she'd secretly hoped that he would. Her eyes closed as he neared.

His lips were only a breath away from hers now, he could nearly taste her as her sweet scent washed over him, stealing what was probably the last of his reason as the world slowly began to disappear around him, falling away until there was only her. He shifted his hand running his palm slowly over her neck in an effort to calm her, felt her shiver slightly against the touch, and then he moved to remove that last centimeter of space between them and feel her soft full lips against his…

"I… I have to go." She found herself on her feet before she meant to move, already dragging her backpack up from beside her feet as she practically raced away from him, her breathing difficult and her heart pounding so hard in her ears she could hardly hear herself speak.

Gasping Kagome rounded the corner and nearly collapsed against the wall, letting her backpack fall to the ground again as she pressed her back and palms against the cold brick building. Panic sent adrenaline through her, making her tremble as she mentally berated herself. What was she doing? This was one of her brother's best friends, however she might have liked him she couldn't let herself forget that. No matter how sweet he was, no matter how badly she may have wanted to… she couldn't. Yusuke would never forgive her, particularly after he'd already been so upset by the idea. Besides, she had more important things to be dealing with. She should be trying to find out what was wrong with Inuyasha, protecting the jewel or thinking about school, not some cute redhead who had dreamy green eyes and had been about to kiss her. Kagome shook off the thoughts, trying to remind herself of the important points she had made to herself only seconds before. He was Yusuke's friend. She couldn't.


	11. Alone?

"Come on Hiei, please?" She looked into bored red eyes and hoped that her best pleading tone and look would work their magic on the demon lounging on her balcony wall for the fourth night in a row, "You have to come." He scoffed quietly and looked away in response. Mildly annoyed Kagome bit on the inside of her bottom lip before shooting him another pout, "It wouldn't be any fun if you weren't there. You know that, we're all hopeless without you…"

"While that may be true, this hardly seems worthy of my time."

Well at least he was acknowledging the idea now that was a step in the right direction. Kagome knew that she just had to figure out a new tactic, but she'd have to figure it out quickly if she wanted anything from him. "I know, but it would mean a lot to me…" His eyes flashed to her and she knew that that had been the wrong direction to leap, "to know that I would have someone nearby that could handle it if things got out of control…"

"I am not some kind of mercenary." He nearly growled.

"But what if we're attacked?"

"Yusuke will be there."

"But Hiei…" She sighed, wondering why it should matter, Yusuke was human after all, and so far she'd yet to meet a demon that willingly considered a human an equal, or even all that useful, "You've said it yourself Yusuke and I aren't the best at planning for emergencies like that, if something comes along that we can't handle…" She looked down, trying to appear hopeless, "we'd just be sitting ducks for some demon to gobble up. We need you there to tell us what to do…" The best course of action was appealing to his pride and sense of superiority, if she'd learned anything about him it was that, "especially if… you know something like a few days ago happens again…" He still said nothing, only looked calmly into the distance, "Will you at least think about it?" She demanded sharply, her patience with his silence already starting to wear thin. "I won't stop bugging you until you agree to at least that much." She added, daring to poke his arm and earning a glare in response.

"Very well, I will consider it."

"Thank you Hiei." She wanted to hug him, but knew that he wouldn't allow it so she settled with a smile before he was turning away dismissively.

XXXXX

"You're kidding me right? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"It is not!" She bit down on her temper, knowing that if she lost control of it this conversation was going to boil down into an argument and she wasn't going to accomplish anything. "Yusuke, it's not like you have to do anything you know."

"Yeah you say that now, but the next thing you know it's gonna be Yusuke move this, Yusuke fix that, Yusuke get me this… well no thanks, you aren't ropin' me into this one." He sank down onto the couch with his arms crossed and glared at her, trying to ignore the pout she was shooting him, "Don't start Kagome, that look doesn't even work when Keiko uses it."

She broke into a smile, "But Keiko is going to be here, and she's really looking forward to it. You wouldn't want to let her down would you?" She listened to the spluttering sound that was rapidly followed by a scoff he had to have learned from Hiei.

"She can do what she wants. I'm out."

"Yusuke…" She looked away again, nipping at her lip thoughtfully for a moment, "Alright I'll make a deal with you."

"Oh?" He watched her from the corner of his eye.

"I'll do what I want, and you can cook your own meals again."

To borrow a term she'd heard Botan use… Bingo.

XXXXX

The clouds had arrived several days earlier, but they had yet to open up upon them. Still it gave him an excuse to do something he was doing anyway.

It had become almost instinctual to return to that bench each day for lunch, the bench where she would sit with or without him, the bench that he found lonely when he happened to beat her to it, the bench he now had to force himself to avoid. It was almost unnerving, how quickly he had become accustomed to going there, to spending that time with her, how badly he wanted to return to the previous arrangement that had him spending his lunch time with her in the quiet away from the other more bothersome students. Instead lunch found him where most wet days would, seated in his customary desk in the classroom before he had to be there, one hand holding up a book that he hoped would deter others from speaking to him. So far it was having mixed results. Some would see the object and choose to leave him, while the more determined ignored its presence altogether.

He knew she was there the moment the door began to open; somehow he just knew that it was her. It wasn't her scent that alerted him to her, although that intoxicating fragrance washed over him, crawled into him in an attempt to drug his brain. He could hear her as well, and couldn't help wondering when he'd become so aware of her breathing pattern, he could pinpoint exactly when she would inhale, how long it would be before she exhaled, even felt his own lungs attempting to follow the same pattern. He knew the sound of her footsteps, even when she hesitated. He knew that she was crossing the room toward him, and he couldn't help wondering why.

He had been avoiding her and he'd thought that she would be staying away from him as well considering that she'd been upset enough to run away from the bench when he'd nearly lost control and allowed himself to get carried away by urges and moments. That was not something he normally allowed, nor was it something he planned to let happen again. Whatever impulses he had toward her he would have to keep them banked, there were far more important things, such as the mystery she was. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more going on with the girl… who happened to be standing less than a foot from him.

Kurama nearly swallowed as he pushed his thoughts away and realized how close she had come. He wanted to look up at her, but kept himself from doing so, wanting to hear her speak before he acknowledged that he'd sensed her coming. He waited, pretending to be focused on the page, but the characters all blurred together as he waited. Seconds ticked past, and then just when he could barely stand it the edge of a piece of paper brushed softly against his hand that rested on the desk. Pretending to be surprised he looked down at it before finally letting his eyes slide up to her face.

"I've been looking everywhere for you."

"I've been here." He smiled a little before looking back to the paper she'd placed on the desk, took in the neat handwriting and brilliant red marks on the form, "I see you got your exam back."

"I wanted to show you… see my score?"

"Yes, it's very good." He'd put his book down to speak with her, and now found himself smiling back at her overly proud face. To be honest it wasn't remotely the best test score that he'd seen, but it was decent and he couldn't bring himself to destroy the look of joy on her face, which was probably the first time it had been genuine in the time he'd known her, "You should be proud."

Her smile faltered a little as she looked down in embarrassment, but the blush faded and her smile returned once she met his eyes again, "Well I don't know about proud, but I was thinking about celebrating."

"Celebrating?" Over a test score? He'd had so many higher test scores and none of them had ever seemed like a cause for rejoicing.

"Yeah… I'm not sure exactly what we'll be doing yet, but I'll think of something. You're coming over tonight right? I mean… if you're not too busy?"

It had been several days since he'd last gone to see them, and he had expected her to avoid him for several more, but if Kurama was to be honest with himself he had been secretly searching for an excuse to see her again, and probably not just because he had failed to learn anything new about her during their lunchtime conversations and study sessions. "No, I'm not busy at all this evening." He heard several surprised gasps from across the room, and knew Kagome heard them as well from the slightly alarmed look on her face that became a confused one when her eyes found nothing warranting them in that direction. He pressed a bit of his energy toward her, spiking it slightly just to draw her attention, which it quickly accomplished before he dropped his energy again, "Are you certain that Yusuke won't mind? I would hate to cause another near riot."

"Oh, that's nothing to worry about. I invited everyone over, Keiko is going to help me cook and Kazuma was going to help me put up streamers. Besides if you give Yusuke a good meal he's super easy to handle." She smiled again, giggled softly almost under her breath, "He's a loudmouth and kind of hot headed, but he's… got a good heart…" it was something she'd said about another guy Yusuke occasionally reminded her a little of, one that she should have been focusing on helping, but despite her guilt Kagome couldn't help herself, this was her chance to grasp at a normal life for a while. Was she such a bad person for wanting to enjoy a little of it?

She was playing absently with her fingers, and he could see her mood swirling in her expressive eyes. For a moment he wondered if it had something to do with his demonic energy, normally if he used it she would become uneasy and run off, maybe she was looking for an excuse.

"Are you all right Kagome?" He asked softly, watching her jump as the vacant expression that had started settling over her snapped away as she jumped.

"I'm fine." She stood from the chair she'd sunk into moments before, pushing it back into the desk it belonged at, "Thanks Shuichi, I really owe you one."

"Not at all." He watched her go with a small smile, wondering why it amused him so much when she reached the door and turned back to give him a small wave before vanishing down the hall, her scent lingering on the air. Still grinning to himself he returned his attention to the book, but his mind was far away from the printed words. Somehow he had quickly become accustomed to Kagome being around, had even begun looking forward to seeing her. These brief encounters had been the highlight of his day on more than one occasion.

XXXXX

Three rolls of brightly colored tissue paper rested in tight coils on the coffee table, a fourth had rolled onto the floor, leaving a thin trail of colorful paper across the wood and carpet. The roll had landed on the ground next to a sock clad foot.

Kagome sat on the couch with her elbows on her knees and her chin framed by her hands as she stared around the empty living room. She sighed and sank a little deeper into the cushions, closing her eyes.

"Kagome… I'm sure they'll be here any time. They're just a little late. It's nothing." The second girl placed a consoling hand on her shoulder and brushed back her short brown hair with the other, turning her attention to the door and wondering where the others were.

"I know Keiko; it was a stupid idea…" Kagome sighed a little again, but opened her eyes to look at the other girl, "But I did really well on that test."

"I know you did." Keiko stood, "Those boys are just inconsiderate, they don't care about school so it doesn't seem that important to them, but still…" Keiko looked down, "They said they should have shown up, they said they would." Another sigh from Kagome and Keiko looked almost horrified, "Not that they won't, I mean they're just running late is all."

"You don't have to try and cheer me up; at least you came to see me." Kagome forced a smile onto her face, feeling bad for making Keiko feel bad, "You don't have to wait around anymore, I'm sure you've got better things to do."

"No…" Keiko paused, "Just because the boys didn't show up doesn't mean we can't still celebrate on our own. It'll probably even be more fun without them."

"I don't know Keiko."

"You shouldn't let them get you down, we'll go out and do something, and then they'll be sorry that they missed it, and the next time they might just show up on time." Keiko smiled at her, but Kagome continued to look uneasy.

XXXXX

Kagome still wasn't entirely certain how she had been talked into this. Shopping wasn't one of her favorite things in the world, but Keiko seemed to love dragging her into different clothing stores and forcing her to try on outfit after outfit, then giggle at some of the more ridiculous ones before dragging her off to the next one. However now that night had officially fallen and the stores were shutting down Kagome was relieved to find that they were walking home.

The street was still alive despite the hour, people walking and chattering, lights falling in bright yellow squares across the dull sidewalk between the circles provided by the streetlights. Cars whizzed past loudly, people shouted. It should have been exhilarating, but all Kagome could do was hold the handle of her single shopping bag and follow Keiko who marched down the street swinging her three bags as if to knock people out of her way. She had never missed the feudal era quite so much. It was quiet there, and the air didn't smell quite so heavily of exhaust fumes.

Sighing to herself a little Kagome looked around, and didn't notice Keiko until she nearly bumped into her, and in her effort to avoid the collision fell backward onto the hard concrete. Gasping a little Kagome pushed herself back to her feet, rubbing her sore hind end. "Keiko what's…?"

"Oh… I don't believe him!" Keiko gripped the bag handles tightly in her fists and started marching forward, the crowd seeming to part before her.

"Keiko?" Kagome glanced around then rushed after her, mumbling apologies to the people Keiko practically shoved out of her way, wondering what had come over the girl she was walking with.

They moved quickly down the sidewalk before Keiko turned sharply and marched into an open door. Kagome hesitated for only a moment before following. The overwhelming noise swarmed over her, making her head nearly spin. She blinked against the flashing lights and tried to tune out the cheers and annoyed shouts. For a moment the overwhelming atmosphere shocked her, and then Kagome wondered what they were doing in an arcade. Then she heard them, two voices floating over the din to lodge in her ears.

"You're going down Urameshi!"

"You've gotta catch me first."

She followed Keiko's blazing gaze to where the boys were pushing at each other while practically tearing apart the racing games they were sitting in, each cranking the wheel violently in one direction before quickly turning it to another. For a moment her temper flared and she almost eagerly followed Keiko as she stormed across the space between them. But before she could say anything Keiko had again taken the lead.

"Yusuke! What are you doing?"

"Keiko… what are you doing here? Why are you yelling at me?" Yusuke barely glanced up from his game, cursing under his breath as he fought to keep his car on the virtual road.

"What am I doing here? Did you forget something Yusuke? You were supposed to go home after school for Kagome's party, and by the time I got there you still hadn't shown up. What kind of brother are you? Do you have any idea how upset she was? You really hurt her feelings!"

"Oh… come on it was only a stupid test, I'm sure she'll get plenty of good scores we can have stupid parties for."

"Yusuke!" Kagome glared at him, "I worked really hard on that test."

"Kagome!" They both jumped to their feet and spun around to her, "What are you doing here?"

"I took her out shopping after you two decided that playing video games was more important than she was!" Keiko froze and turned to look at her, "Oh… Kagome I… I didn't mean that…"

"Oh, it's alright Keiko, I know." She wasn't as important as video games? Kagome felt her already fragile mood dropping dangerously.

"Kagome… I'm sorry; we were just going to stop for a minute and… I guess we lost track of time."

"It's alright Kazuma…" She looked down.

"Hey, it's better this way anyway, we can hang out and play some games… it's a great way to celebrate anything." Yusuke moved to drop his arm over her shoulders.

"That's okay, I'm kind of tired, but you guys go ahead."

"No, Kagome…" Keiko reached out toward her as she shrugged out from under her brother's arm and turned toward the door, "We'll all go with you."

"That's okay, I know the way home." She fixed a brilliant smile on her face and turned back sharply, "You guys stay and have fun, I'm just going to go get some rest."

She wanted to be angry with them, but she just didn't have the energy suddenly. It had been a stupid idea, she knew that, it was such a dumb thing to want to have a party over after all, but she'd wanted to, wanted to have just a piece of a normal life, and this was normal too, people not showing up to stupid parties, brothers forgetting, people just not caring. Maybe she'd been a little too concerned over her abnormal life to realize just how much normal life could stink too.

"Oh… Kagome are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." She waved and smiled some more, but quickly turned away before the illusion failed. As she walked toward the exit she could hear Keiko turning on both of them again, and rushed to leave before an even larger scene was caused.

The arcade was only a few blocks from the apartment, an even shorter walk if she took a few alleys that Yusuke had shown her. So Kagome set off down the street, one hand absently playing with the jewel that was still in her pocket. She just wasn't comfortable leaving it anywhere still, she was half certain that it was just going to become a permanent addition to all of her outfits. Maybe putting it on a necklace or bracelet wouldn't have been such a bad idea anyway. She had been worried about someone seeing it, but so far the only person to come after it was Inuyasha, who would figure out that she had it even if she kept it hidden.

Absently Kagome turned around the corner into one of the alleys, curling her fingers around the jewel as she walked slowly down the dark passage, trying to stay in the center where she could still make out most of what was around her and avoid many of the obstacles littering the ground in the dim lighting.

Something shifted in the darkness to her side, her pulse speeding suddenly Kagome turned that direction, her arms coming protectively together in front of her. Nervously she held her breath, straining her eyes to see into the darkness. For a long moment she stood where she was, every one of her senses ripping itself apart in an attempt to identify and locate whatever was hiding just beyond her line of sight. Mentally she berated herself for her fear, for stopping when she should be running if there really was something. Anxiously she turned on her toe and propelled herself forward, her heart pounding relentlessly in her throat, drowning out any other sound that that might have found her ears.

She attempted to scream as the hand caught her arm, but it came out a gasp as she was thrown into the concrete wall of one of the buildings. Pain exploded through her back and skull at the impact, it radiated downward into her legs, jarring her knees so violently they gave out beneath her and she slid in a daze to kneel on the ground.

A hand closed around her neck, dragging her still limp body back up along the wall by her chin. In her haze all Kagome could do was stare helplessly at the creature that had a hold of her.

It was close to human in form, at least it had been at first, but as it held her there the horns she'd only seen glimmering through in the previous moments materialized and the tan sun damaged skin of a human melted away to reveal an odd blue-grey color. But it was the eyes that drew Kagome's attention and dominated her blurred vision. The thing's eyes hadn't looked remotely human from the start; they had been dark, but glowed with foul intentions and wickedness. As she stared into them, the orbs rapidly became more horrific.

"I know you have something." The voice was low, breaking through her pounding heartbeat, echoing as if it had entered her as a vibration through her skin rather than her ears "Whatever it is you will give it to me."

"I… I don't…" Her voice was barely a gasp that nearly died as he gripped harder, bringing her hands up to pull at his, her feeble grip unable to force him to release despite her best efforts.

"I know it; now tell me what it is and where it is so I can devour that appetizingly large soul of yours." The tip of its claw slid down the side of her face, pressing hard enough to inflict pain without actually drawing blood.

"No…" Her pulse hadn't slowed, but she could feel the pressure of it in her throat rather than in her ears. Her vision blurred further as her lungs burned and she fought to draw in a breath that wouldn't come. Seconds passed and her body began numbing, her arms falling heavily to her sides as she was unable to hold them up, and her power remained dormant inside her. She couldn't call it up to her, couldn't even attempt to harness it to save herself as she'd used it to save others.

"I'll find it either way human."

Darkness pressed in on the edges of her vision and her eyelids continued to fall no matter how she fought to keep them up, screamed at herself to stay awake, to do something. Her brain raged, but her body was helpless, no longer possessing the strength required to fulfill her mental demands. She thought she heard a voice, but her panicked brain couldn't place it, not that it mattered, it was probably just another death threat from the demon. Yellow light flashed across her vision just before her eyelids finally fell closed and Kagome felt herself fall into blackness.

Xxx

"Disgusting." The man glanced at the unconscious form of the girl, then to the grotesque creature beside her and finally to the taller man standing beside him. He watched his employer take a step forward to look down at the young woman, "This is unexpected."

"Sir?"

The tall man turned back, walked toward the street and the dark car that gleamed beneath a nearby streetlight, "Bring her."

"Sir? Are you…"

"Now." That tone always meant trouble, particularly if someone disobeyed it. Swallowing nervously he rushed forward to lift the small girl into his arms and practically ran to place her in the back seat of the car.


	12. Discovery

Perhaps he should have come earlier. Fighting off mild disappointment Kurama hit his knuckle against the door several times with several very satisfying cracks. But the instant the sharp retorts faded silence set back in, unnerving him slightly. Kagome had said that the others would be joining her, if they had there would not have been this quiet here, he should have been able to hear them even through the door, but there was nothing, not even a whisper of sound escaped from the hushed interior. Still he waited.

It was probable that he had simply been late and missed them, had they chosen to go somewhere else. But Kagome had gone out of her way to invite him, surely she wouldn't have left without at least leaving him a note? His green eyes swept over the surrounding area, quickly checking every detail, and found no scrap of paper, no sprawled message, no sign of anything having happened. With a thoughtful expression he placed a hand on the door knob, closing his fingers tightly around the metal he paused for a moment, wondering if maybe they were planning some kind of prank on him, or if maybe she'd left him a note or something inside, or if there would be some sign of where they might have gone. A quick twist of his wrist was stopped as the door's lock slammed into place, refusing to disengage the mechanism and allow him inside. Kurama sighed to himself, hesitating for only a moment before deciding to fall back on the skills of an old habit.

XXXXX

"How can you two just sit here playing video games? Kagome is really upset right now."

"Really? She seemed fine." Kuwabara dropped his hands from the steering wheel and stared down, concentrating on his thoughts to keep from focusing on the game again. Kagome had been smiling when she left, so how could she be upset, but on the other hand Keiko was a girl, so there was a chance that she might know something that they weren't picking up on. He cringed as Yusuke gave a shout of victory beside him. "Hey, Urameshi…"

"Yeah, what's up?" He turned away from the flashing victory on the screen, pausing with his hand only a fraction away from inserting another coin for another game.

"We may have really screwed up this time."

"What are you on about?" Yusuke brought his hand up away from the slots to rest his elbow against the mock steering wheel, temporarily abandoning his quest for another game.

"Keiko's probably right we may have really hurt Kagome's feelings." He pushed his large frame out of the bucket seat attached to the machine, "We've got to go apologize and make it up to her."

"Oh, come on." He scoffed a little and turned back to the game, eagerly plugging coins into the waiting slot, "She's fine. You know Kagome, if she was mad she'd have told us. It's not like she shy about it." Although they mostly got along he'd gotten into at least a few fights with the girl, and Kagome's temper on occasion was enough to scare even him.

"Yusuke, she isn't mad." Keiko murmured looking down in disappointment, shaking her head gently, "She's probably feeling lonely and abandoned. I bet she's home crying right now."

"Yeah, right, I bet she's hanging out with Kurama talking about math or something." He shrugged as the fame started and slammed his foot into the pedal by his foot.

"No she isn't. Kurama didn't show up either."

"Wait… Kurama didn't show up? Do you mean…" Kuwabara looked down again, "Did anyone show up?"

"No, other than us she doesn't really know anybody. I mean she's only been here about a week and a half, and… it seems like Kurama's the only one who's nice to her, or she really talks to at school." Keiko was still looking down. It wasn't something that Kagome had said, it was just something she'd sort of noticed. They'd walked past more than a few girls in uniforms like the one Kagome wore to school, who merely scoffed at the girl and walked away from her.

"What do you mean Kurama's the only one who's nice to her at school? Did she say something? Is someone bothering her? Just tell me, I'll kick all their asses." Yusuke was on his feet suddenly, his forgotten video car sailing off the edge of the track as he looked almost frantically between the two of them.

"Yusuke…" Keiko shook her head again, but she was smiling this time, "Come on, let's go try to cheer her up."

XXXXX

It was an odd feeling that had him moving, something coiling somewhere inside that he would rather have ignored having. He had ignored it at first, but now it had practically his entire body trembling with it. Something was wrong, and it probably required his attention if this… strange instinct was washing over him. It had only happened before when Yukina was being held hostage and he'd finally figured it out, learned that she was in danger. But Yukina couldn't have been in any danger, and there was no other explanation for it that he could think of. Still Hiei couldn't stand still any longer, he had to move. So he allowed his feet to carry him, not choosing a path just going the direction that seemed right.

He was nearly to the apartment building when he finally stopped, and scoffed to himself. His habit of coming to see the girl was starting to become bothersome. At first he'd come to hear the story she'd promised him, but then he'd continued to come, simply to watch her he assured himself. Clearly she was drawing the attention of demons and wasn't all that good at looking after herself. She was too kind for her own good, even seemed to enjoy his company, and that was one of the many things that would have gotten her killed. She'd displayed a flash of self preserving intelligence however, and it was that one thing that kept him from labeling her a lost cause. He had seen through her story, the lie by omission that she didn't have that stupid jewel she'd avoided telling him everything about. It was obvious that this jewel was what the demons were after not only the girl. He'd briefly considered taking it from her, not because he desired its power but because it hardly seemed that she was really able to protect the thing and taking it away seemed to be the only way to keep it from becoming a problem in the future. But what would he have done with it? Hiei had no desire to be challenged constantly by demons that weren't worth his time and Koenma and spirit world were even less reliable than Kagome. So he had abandoned the idea, choosing instead to merely keep an eye on her in case she got in over her head. She seemed to have mistaken this interest as a desire for friendship, for now he wouldn't correct her mistake; it wasn't worth the time it would take.

So why was he here now? His eyes sliding slowly up the side of the building to her dark room? Why did he wonder where she was and have a strange uncomfortable feeling in her stomach? Hadn't she been planning some ridiculous gathering tonight? Then why was every light in the apartment off, shouldn't they have been here?

Mildly annoyed he moved closer to the building, considered actually going up there, but held back for a moment. If she was having some sort of party he definitely didn't want to get stuck becoming involved.

XXXXX

He felt a stab of guilt as he took in the surroundings a final time. Streamers rested on the table, and small plates of untouched food had long since gone cold on the counter. Kuwabara and Keiko were supposed to have helped her with those, but there was no sign of them having been there. They must not have come… and he had been late. That stab of guilt returned more fiercely. It was no wonder that she had gone off somewhere else.

He resolved to go find her as he exited the apartment, leaving the door carefully locked behind him. Kurama paused for a moment in the hallway, wondering where to even start searching for her. Kagome was new to town, he doubted that she knew that many places, but the city was big, and she'd wandered away without knowing where she was going before. But there was always the chance that she wasn't going to want to see any of them, so perhaps it was best that he leave her alone and explain the following day, apologize for being late.

He turned to the stairs, made his way quickly down them, still trying to shake the hope that he would walk into her around the next corner, or see her standing outside the door, but the sidewalk found him alone.

"See, look, you guys were all worked up for nothin', there's Kurama, old Mr. Reliable showed up. You were yelling at me for nothing Keiko."

"Yusuke?" He turned down the sidewalk toward the small group walking toward him.

"Hey, Kurama!" The larger of the three ran up to him, orange-red hair flopping slightly with each step, "How's Kagome, she's not too mad right?"

"I wouldn't know." He murmured. He'd hoped that she was with them, not off somewhere alone despite his assumption that that was the case.

"Oh, she give you that I'm fine smile thing too? I know it's kind of confusing huh? But Keiko says that she's really upset because none of us showed up on time… but you're here so I guess she doesn't have any reason to be upset anymore huh?"

"No Kuwabara, I do not know how Kagome is because I haven't seen her, she isn't here." He explained loudly enough for the others to hear as well.

"What do you mean she isn't here?" Keiko stepped forward, "But she said she was coming home, and she left at least a few minutes before us… she should be here by now…"

"Yeah, and we took the long way, knowing Kagome she probably took one of the shortcuts I showed her. You sure she didn't just slip by you Kurama?"

"Fairly certain, when she wasn't in the apartment I was looking for her to apologize for my lateness." He glanced up at the still dark windows.

"So… Kagome is… missing?" Keiko's eyes widened as she turned to grab Yusuke's arm, "We have to find her, it's really late she shouldn't be wandering around the streets alone… we should have come with her instead of letting her walk alone… and none of this would have happened if you two had shown up on time!"

"Hey, what about Kurama, he was late too." Yusuke clapped a hand over his ringing ear to avoid more damage from another scream.

"I doubt Kurama was sitting in an arcade somewhere. _He_ probably has a very good excuse." Keiko turned on her heel, "Now let's go find her."

XXX

He felt his eyes narrow at the group moving away. She should have been with them, she should have been safe. Mildly annoyed he turned away from where they were shouting about arcades and the missing girl. They were wasting time, if Kagome was out there it would only be a matter of time before she received unwanted attention, and as her own brother seemed to be as incompetent of protecting her as he was of everything else he would have to take on the responsibility for the moment, just to ensure that the jewel didn't become a problem of course. After all the fools would undoubtedly be unable to find her in time, they hadn't the last time after all.

Turning away from the building he stalked away into the darkness, the eye in his forehead already glowing slightly with the efforts of finding her.

XXXXX

"I still say you're all worried over nothing. She probably just took a wrong turn and got lost or something." Yusuke grumbled as the others rushed him back down the sidewalks he had just passed over minutes before.

"Yusuke, we weren't that far away." Keiko looked down for a moment, her hand tightening on his arm, "Kagome knows her way home, she would have beaten us there if something hadn't happened to her."

"Nothing happened to her, she's fine." Because if something had happened to her it was his fault for not looking after his sister, his fault because he hadn't just humored her and gone to her stupid party, because even after he'd screwed up he hadn't walked her home and had let it happened. Nothing could have happened to her.

"I'm sure you're right Yusuke, but we should still locate her, just to be sure nothing does happen to her." Kurama's eyes were scanning the crowds around them, hoping to see her fumbling her way toward home through the throngs of people. But each group left him hoping. "Yusuke, which alleys did you show her to walk through?" Kagome wouldn't have branched too far off the usual path if she was just walking home after all.

"Well, we usually only use the next one…" Yusuke froze for a second as the others raced past him toward the dark opening, hesitated until he saw them freeze only a step inside before running full speed to get to them. "Alright, alright, what's got you all so…?" He shoved between them, his eyes sweeping the ground before he found them widening and air freezing up in his lungs.

Blood was spattered across a concrete wall, pieces of flesh sliding down the smooth surface with the quickly drying liquid. Several gobs of matching flesh were sprawled across the ground, like pieces of a goopy puzzle, if pushed together they might have formed a body. Yet somehow the cuts were clean, smooth, yet somehow curved in a way that made it unlikely a blade had done the job.

"Alright… what the hell happened here?"


	13. Searching

He considered the body for a long moment before moving toward it, nearly trembling with the first step, but steadying with the second as he approached one puzzle he had no interest in putting together. The more squeamish part of him wanted to look away from the still oozing flesh, the pungent blood that had become thick yet hadn't dried yet. He forced his eyes to stay on it, to take in every detail of the grisly scene, from the strokes that had taken the things life, the uneven pieces that it had become, the pattern the blood had taken when it splattered across the ground and walls, and finally…

The demon's hand rested near the wall, the fingers curled together toward the palm, but the claws not fully closed. Even in the dim light he could see it, the strands of black hair resting across its palm, his heart gave a lurch and he breathed in deeply, sifting through the overwhelming scent until he found…

The world spun sideways suddenly as it forced his eyes wide and his mind blank. He felt himself tremble slightly, felt the air stolen from his lungs by invisible specters. How had he not immediately noticed, even through the layers of vile smelling blood and already decomposing flesh he should have known this scent, her scent the instant he came across the disassembled body resting in the alleyway. He'd always known the soft smell with just the faintest traces of it presence somehow, but he missed it this time.

"Hey, Kurama, you all right man?" Yusuke moved forward slightly, pausing not far from him as he tried to look at the expression the redhead was trying to hide behind curtains of his hair. "Yo, earth to Kurama, you in there buddy?"

"I'm sorry Yusuke, it seems that we were wrong." He moved forward to gather the strands of hair and an abandoned shopping bag that had hidden out of view, heard Keiko gasp and begin stuttering, "Kagome was here."

XXXXX

Finding her shouldn't have been a difficult task in the least. It wasn't as if she knew how to manipulate her energy, she couldn't even use it properly most of the time or she would have been able to saver herself in that clearing with it rather than having to wait until she perceived others in danger. Someone should have taught her to use that unique energy of hers it had the potential to be very effective. However despite all of that he had yet to pinpoint her location, all he had been able to do was discover that she was still in the city. That should have been a comforting idea, not that he needed comforted of course, but the knowledge was more bothersome than anything else he had considered. If she had left town it would make not being able to find her more bearable, but knowing that she was still within the city limits he had been haunting all this time and he was still unable to find her was almost infuriating.

He concentrated harder, the eye on his forehead glowing with the effort as he continued to search. It should have taken him moments at the most, yet after at least fifteen minutes he didn't seem to be making any progress. Even searching for that damnable jewel, the aura of which he had begun to separate from hers after learning of it had yielded no results. Growling to himself Hiei focused, forcing himself to look harder, demanding of himself that he find her quickly. If she, or anything else, thought that they would hide something from _him_ he would show them the impossibility of that action. It wouldn't be allowed to continue.

XXXXX

"What do you mean she _was_ here?" Yusuke glared at the red head for a moment, "Then where did she go?" His heart was pounding painfully, stabs of the guilt knife twisting in his side and stomach. This was his fault.

"I'm afraid I cannot answer that question. Kagome was in this alley and for the moment that is all that I know." He considered the strands of hair he'd claimed from the dead demon's hand for a long moment before letting them flutter back to the ground, landing on bloodstained concrete beside his feet.

"That's all! Can't you tell what did this at least, or if she was here when it happened?" Yusuke's eyes had narrowed dangerously as he gestured to the small chunks of demon flesh littering the ground, "Maybe she just saw this mess and ran off somewhere or something?"

"It does not appear that that is the case." Kurama handed the bag to Keiko who was still stammering at them both, seeming to have slipped into a slight case of shock, "There is blood on the bag, and the demons was holding what appear to be several strands of her hair. I can say with some certainty that Kagome was near the demon when it was killed, though in what condition I can only assume at."

"Well then give me your assumptions." Yusuke crossed his arms to glare at him.

"While I cannot tell you her precise state of well being I can tell that none of this blood is hers, so at the very least we know that she was not bleeding."

"Then whatever killed this demon… it might have taken her?" Keiko swallowed, "What do you think it was? Is there any way you can tell?"

"No Keiko, there isn't much else I can do." He looked down, "My nose isn't quite sensitive enough to pick through all of the smells hidden beneath this blood, all I can do is distinguish between it, Kagome and hints of possibly two others I cannot identify and sadly I cannot follow them from this place."

"Two? There are two of them now?" Kuwabara grabbed his hair with his fists, "This is bad Urameshi, what if something bad happens to her?"

"Nothing bad is gonna happen to her." Yusuke turned out of the alley, "We're gonna find her and then I'm gonna kick the ass of whatever took her. Then we're all going to go home and have a party to celebrate a stupid test score damn it." He stormed off away from the alley, Kuwabara nodding in agreement as he followed him away.

"Um… guys…" Keiko looked down when they turned back to her, "Do… do you even have a plan?"

XXXXX

Waking up. It should have been such a simple thing to do, the world should have just pressed in on her, that switch in her brain turning from darkness to the conscious world and forcing her along with it. But Kagome didn't wake that way, things couldn't be that simple for her.

Instead the world was as blurry when she found it as it had been when she'd left, leaving Kagome to wonder if perhaps it wasn't something wrong with her eyes, but if the world had just become a blurry place. For a moment she wondered how she would manage to walk around if things no longer had definite edges, this could have become seriously hazardous to her health, she was already clumsy enough when things were in perfect clarity.

For only a second the dim lighting made her think she might have been in the alley still, the fuzzy shapes she could make out further distorted by the darkness a thin band of light falling out of a partially open door couldn't banish. Panic set in then. If she'd woken up in the alley she could have handled it she was sure, but this… Kagome had been kidnapped enough times that she should have been used to being in strange places by now, but it always sent a jolt of alarm through her to be somewhere she didn't know, with no idea of how she'd gotten there or just what might be waiting for her. It almost seemed like a better idea to just curl back into the warm bed she was resting in, go back to sleep and hope that the next time she woke up she was back at home.

But Kagome didn't have that option, she had to find out what sort of situation she was in, what had happened to her and the demon in the alley, how long she had been unconscious, and very importantly where she was and if she'd be allowed to leave or if that thing had taken her and planned to eat her still. She needed to know what had happened to the jewel.

Her head was spinning as she forced herself to sit up, her throat protesting with a wave of pain as she tried to swallow. Ignoring those problems Kagome twisted to the side, her legs trembling slightly as she inched forward until her feet found the ground. With a surprising amount of effort she pushed herself off of the bed, nearly worried that her knees would give out when they shuddered under her weight. They held firm though, and after a second she was comfortable with removing the steadying hand she had thrown out to grab the bed she'd just vacated. With the aid of a few deep breaths she steadied herself completely and fixed her resolve in place. She was going to find out what was going on, get her cursed jewel back and go home, where she would curse Yusuke for not showing up before falling into her bed. It was a beautiful plan, one Kagome knew wouldn't work out, at least not so simply, she just didn't have that kind of luck.

The floor was silent beneath her feet as she took a few steps, not a single part creaking in protest as she slipped across thick carpeting toward the open door, preparing herself for some horrible thing to be waiting on the other side. She hid behind the barrier, twisting to peak through the crack in an effort to see what was beyond the dimly lit room she'd found herself in before walking directly into it. Holding her breath Kagome opened her eyes as they neared the opening and screamed, or rather attempted to, much to the annoyance of her dry and swollen throat that burned with pain in protest.

The air whistled past her ears, dragging the dark curtain of her hair up to cover her face and leaving the world hidden behind the strands as she landed on carpet that should have been thick enough to cushion her fall far more than it did. Kagome battled the urge to swallow nervously as she pushed her hair away from her face and looked up as the band of yellow light widened over her.

"Are you all right miss?"

Kagome jumped slightly as her eyes met another set of brown eyes, it took her a moment to realize they were the same brown eyes that had sent her screaming away from the door only moments earlier. "Oh… I…" her voice was harsh, scratchy and she instinctively reached up to touch her painful throat, the muscles of her neck protesting at the contact.

"I must apologize for startling you, I just thought I heard something and was looking in to see. I must have given you quite a scare." He was kneeling beside her, watching her with clearly human brown eyes as he rubbed at the back of his neck, ruffling the back of his black hair with an embarrassed grin. "Here, let me help you up." Without waiting for an answer he caught her arm and pulled her gently to her feet.

"Oh that's… um…" She was surprised when he held on until she was standing steadily before letting her go, and found herself staring at his hand until it withdrew. If she had been kidnapped, he was at least the nicest captor that she had ever had, but that didn't set Kagome very much at ease. She needed to find out what had happened to her, "Um… how did I…?"

"Don't worry all of your questions will be answered eventually, but for now, let's just make sure you're all right, you have been unconscious for several hours."

"Hours?" Kagome swallowed and cringed. By now they would have noticed that she was gone, and she would be in some serious trouble when she got home.

"Yes, nearly four and a half now." He cringed away as she cried out and spun to him, "Is something wrong?"

Kagome felt herself staggering backward, but stopped before falling back onto the bed again, staring at the floor with wide eyes. She'd been gone for more than four hours now, they had to have noticed, and that meant that there was a lot of explaining to be done when she got home. She would have to start thinking up an excuse now if she was going to come up with a good one. "It's nothing," Kagome fixed a smile in place as she forced her voice to work properly, "Thank you, but could I have my things? I have to get home."

His smiled turned sad, "I'm sorry, but I can't let you leave just yet."

"What?" The verdict was in, kidnapped it was. But she couldn't understand it, she'd only ever been kidnapped by people that wanted something from her, or wanted to kill her, what could this guy possibly want?

"I would have gladly let you go, but the decision isn't mine you see? I'm just supposed to keep an eye on you until you're up and around."

"Then who makes the decision?" She didn't have time to stand around waiting, her coat was missing, the jewel wasn't in any pocket she currently had access to, and for some reason she couldn't seem to sense it anywhere.

He shook his head at her, "Not just yet, first we have to make sure you aren't going to collapse in a moment and finish getting you patched up." He gave her another small smile in an attempt to reassure her.

"I don't have time for that." Kagome wanted to glare at him, but she was certain her look came off as more pleading than demanding, but she hoped it was effective enough. "Just give me my stuff and I'll get out of your hair okay?"

"I can't do that miss."

"My name is Kagome, and you can't hold me here. Kidnapping is against law you know."

"I didn't kidnap you mi… Kagome, but I can't let you leave just yet."

"Oh, and why is that?" She was almost shouting, wishing there was something she could do about it. Nice captor or not, she wasn't happy about being told she couldn't leave, who was this guy to try and keep her from going home? She could feel herself shaking now, her body heat rising with the anger that was inspired when he only continued to smile nicely at her. "Well? Why can't I go?" For a moment she was glad he wasn't a demon as her powers began to spike, feeding off of panic and fear and searching for the threat that must have been causing it. However angry she might have been she didn't want to hurt anyone, and the pink glow that was building around her hands was stronger than she'd ever seen it. Not for the first time Kagome wished that she had been able to control the power that would rise occasionally when she got upset like this, that it was more reliable.

"Enough."

The voice sent an invisible ice cube down her spine and sent her powers retreating into her body as she stiffened and turned with stunned eyes to the door the man had moved away from. Frozen suns held her eyes in place for a long moment, sent a shudder through her body, "It's… you… Sesshomaru…"

_To all of you who figured out my clues before this, congrats, I considered putting someone else in just to annoy you, or catch you off guard, but how can I have a fic without my favorite Inuyasha character in it right?_


	14. Found

Hiei felt himself moving before he'd fully stopped thinking, his body taking over before his mind could issue its orders, reacting to it before he'd even consciously realized what it was. He refused to believe that it was relief that was washing over him as he ran, it wasn't. It had been welcome, that now familiar energy flare that sent a tingle through his consciousness, and had it been from anyone but her, would have warranted defensive action. This didn't though. It came from her, a spike of the energy he'd learned to recognize so well so quickly. And even as it vanished he couldn't help smirking to himself. That energy would lead him directly to her, just as it had not long ago when he'd found her in that clearing.

It wasn't panic that had him hurrying; it was anger Hiei assured himself, anger at whatever had been concealing her from him for the last several hours. Anger at the thing he would be killing for the crime once he found her. And he would find her, even as her energy signature faded. She had broken through whatever had been hiding her, she had broken through that barrier just long enough to tell him where she was, and now that he knew nothing was going to keep Hiei from that place, and killing the _thing_ that had dared to think it could defy and out do him. It would pay.

XXXXX

"We've been wandering around for hours and she's still nowhere!" Yusuke glared at the ground near him feet, "This is… this is bullshit." He growled, trying to ignore the continuing guilt welling up inside of him. He'd done this, it was his fault she was in danger, and he wasn't even going to be able to save her from that danger, "And where the hell is Hiei when we need him? With that stupid eye of his he'd be able to tell us right where she is."

"Yusuke," Kurama sighed, hating what he was about to say even before he said it, "Becoming irrational isn't going to help us in the least. We will have to keep our wits about us and come up with a better plan if we wish to discover where Kagome is." It was the truth, but at this point even he wanted to yell at something, somewhere in the recesses of his mind and soul that was, not that he would give in the urge. It was merely concern and stress from following around an irate Yusuke and Kuwabara, both of whom were using anger to cover their guilt. That accompanied with Keiko's jumping and worry on top of his own concern for her was enough to fray even his nerves. "Perhaps one of us should be waiting back at the apartment, in case she makes her way home while we are searching for her."

"You know Kurama; I bet she's already there!" Yusuke smiled, but he could see the fragile hope in those brown eyes, the desperation, "Let's go check it out, and then if she's not Keiko can wait there while we go look for her." Yusuke tucked the plastic looking spy glass into his pocket before he turned and began running toward the apartment building, Kuwabara rushing ahead with him shouting for him to wait up and leaving him and Keiko to follow more slowly.

He lagged behind a few steps, eyes still searching from under his bangs as he walked even though he knew it was likely a pointless pursuit. If she was standing around on a street somewhere they surely would have found her earlier, and with ease. However that hadn't been the case, which only fueled the dread building in the back of his mind, but it wasn't a feeling of dread that had him stopping.

Invisible hands closed around him, a presence he could nearly feel as fingers caught his arms and turned him, a voice he couldn't hear calling to him as a strange sensation curled through him, one that he knew he should have recognized, but simply was unable to. The phantom hands caught him, almost seemed to sink into him to pull at his blood, a subtle yank that wasn't physical. For a moment he considered going a long, but he had more important things to do than follow unfounded and likely imagined sensations tonight. He had to find Kagome before anything happened to her… if nothing had happened to her already the pessimistic realist in him snapped, and listening to its call for action he attempted to shake away the feeling and followed Yusuke toward the home he and Kagome shared, hoping that she would be there against his own knowledge that she wouldn't be.

XXXXX

She fell back as he stepped forward, her knees refusing to hold her as the shock spread, stealing her strength and making her muscles tremble. This time she barely noticed the impact of her body on the floor, just scooted back from him until her back hit the bed again, her head colliding with the side of the mattress as she pressed herself backward, trying to keep as much distance between them as possible, her eyes glued to his now slightly narrowed golden ones.

He took another long stride into the room, his gaze pinning her to the floor as he considered her almost coldly, his calculating thoughts barely hidden behind the emotionless mask he'd had perfected even when she'd seen him in the past. Silently he held her in place with only a gaze, almost as if waiting for something.

"My… my lord I wasn't expecting you so soon," The young man, likely in his early or mid twenties, smiled softly, "She's only just awoken. I haven't had a chance to really check on her yet…"

"She's fine as she is, leave us." His eyes still didn't move away from her, and both seemed oblivious to the confused and questioning look the male set of brown eyes was sending them.

"My lord, she seems very upset, perhaps I should try calming her before you…"

"Leave us." His voice was no louder than before, it was the icy tone that made the young man cringe. For another moment he seemed frozen in place, then bowed his head slightly and inched away toward the door.

Kagome threw him an almost pleading look as he neared the door, wanting desperately to ask the other human to stay with her, although she knew it would do no good. Even if the man had stayed she would have been in the same situation, even if she wasn't alone she would still only be able to hope that he meant her no harm. She couldn't control her energy as if it were a weapon on command, and she had no real weapons, not that it would have mattered, her arrows had proven ineffective against him in the past she doubted they would fare any better now. He'd had five hundred years to attain more strength after all. But still, it would have been nice to not be alone with a demon who had attempted to kill her. Sure she'd seen him since then, but each time he'd been preoccupied with Inuyasha, and here there was no half demon to draw his attention. That attention was fixed squarely on her, and the last time that had happened she should have been melted by his poison like the rib bone she's ended up under. Kagome swallowed at the memory, her eyes gluing on the human she'd yelled at earlier, who was currently abandoning her, and she couldn't help thinking that she should have been nicer to him.

"As you wish my lord." He paused at the door to turn back, taking in the pitiful look on the girl's face and not for the first time that night wondered how she knew the demon standing in the room with her. The latter really wasn't all that fond of humans after all, he himself was an exception, though there were times that he thought Lord Sesshomaru wasn't all that fond of him either, still he understood the girl's fear, and he felt bad for leaving her alone, but it didn't mean he had a choice. So he stopped in the doorway, turned back and gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile, sure that she wouldn't be hurt. They had saved her life after all.

There was something familiar about that smile, even though Kagome was certain she'd never seen the man before this, but there was something about the just a little too bright smile he flashed her, and the way his eyelids slid down when he gave it, the kindness in them when they opened again. Kagome knew that she should have known those eyes for some reason. But she didn't have time to focus on it.

The lights blared into being, startling and blinding her for a moment. She cringed away from the flash, her eyes closing reflexively against the pain as she turned away from the light source. A whimper left her abused throat, that pain not lessening any with extended use. Slowly she forced her eyelids up, her vision blurred once again by the brightness, though _that_ did lessen if not vanish completely after a few blinks. It was then that she jumped again at hearing the door close with a soft click that might as well have been a gunshot to her ears, and her frightened eyes found a still very tall white clad figure staring down at her.

"What are you?"

XXXXX

"The lights are still out Yusuke, it's very unlikely that she's returned."

"We still have to go check."

"If she were to have come home don't you think she'd have been worried about your absence and stayed up waiting for you?" This was a useless argument and he was beginning to lose his patience with it. The longer they stood around fighting about wasting the time to go up the stairs and find the place empty again the longer Kagome was lost and possibly in great danger. While he wanted to believe that she had somehow escaped the demon's clutches and was wandering around in shock or something Kurama was not foolish enough to place all of his hopes on that scenario. He just didn't want to think of the others for the moment. So all he could do currently was continue looking, and looking in the one place he knew she wasn't didn't make sense, however Yusuke might have yelled.

"Not if she was mad! She might already be in bed or something if she didn't want to talk to or see us." Kuwabara, of course, had joined Yusuke's side of the argument with a purpose. They were both clinging to the idea that Kagome was simply scared, and just avoiding them in an effort to avoid their own guilt. Both had decided that it was firmly their fault, and Kurama was of a similar opinion. If he'd only been quicker in arriving himself he was certain that Kagome would have never gone missing.

"Very well then," He took a deep breath to halt the spark of temper that had been preparing to come out, "You go and see if Kagome has come home, I will continue looking elsewhere and we will meet back here in a few hours."

"You're going to feel like an idiot wasting all that time when you come back and the party's over." Yusuke shouted over his shoulder as he headed for the door, that fragile hope that Kurama knew would be broken soon still lingering there.

"I hope you are right Yusuke." He murmured as he turned away from them and made his way into the darkness.

XXXXX

She wouldn't have to wait much longer now. He leapt easily over the edge of a building to land on the other and rush across its roof to the next. She was in this area, he knew that, though he hadn't pinpointed her exact location yet, but it wouldn't take long. He'd nearly found her, and whatever it was that his sword would soon be going through. Or perhaps he would pummel it senseless before he killed it, just to take some aggression out. He still had a few moments to decide after all.

There had been no more flares of her energy, which would mean that she was at least temporarily out of danger. Hiei refused to even entertain the notion that she had died, though he would have normally admitted that it was a distinct possibility, perhaps even the most likely of them all. But he would not fail, and if she was dead it would have meant that he'd failed, just like the detective, and he was better than that oaf. After all, his sister had been kidnapped before he'd known of her, and since he'd learned of her she'd been safe. Yusuke had allowed his sister to be taken under his very nose. Another of the facts that Hiei refused to entertain was the one that she'd been taken under his nose as well. He had an excellent excuse after all; he hadn't even been near her. And he refused to feel guilt about not going to that ridiculous party she'd been planning.

It didn't matter anyway, he reminded himself as he slowed slightly to search for lingering traces of her energy. He would find her soon enough.

XXXXX

It wasn't helping that his feet were trying to pull him away from his plotted search pattern. It seemed with each step he took that something was yanking at him, pulling at every cell of him in a different direction. More than once he had to stop and search for what was causing this, though with each look he found nothing, could sense nothing else. It was maddening, almost had him jumpy. But he was one to trust his instincts after all. So it was with a sigh that Kurama gave up on his planned route and allowed his feet to carry him. Hoping that this was the best course of action, or at the very least not a stupid one.

XXXXX

She wanted to be angry over the question. She wanted to jump up and yell at him, demand what he meant by that. She was human, which he should have easily been able to tell by just smelling her, not that she enjoyed the idea of Sesshomaru sniffing her in any way. Oh she wanted to put him in his place, but Kagome settled for struggling to her feet under the weight of his stare so her neck wouldn't hurt from looking up at him.

"Answer."

"I'm not your slave or something you know Sesshomaru." She grumbled before she'd meant to and noticed the miniscule narrowing of his eyes as they hardened another fraction. She hadn't thought that would be possible.

"How do you know that name?" He was moving toward her, stopped less than a foot away to consider her closely, his eyes demanding an answer even as they moved over her. She swallowed again, trying to ignore the way her stomach twisted around itself and her heart ran for her ears.

"I… um…" How could she explain this? It wasn't like he would believe her.

"Stop your stammering and answer human." The order was spoken softly, but she'd learned long before that he didn't have to shout to be intimidating, just being this close, whispering with that icy tone was enough to have her wanting to run.

"I… I don't even know where to start…" She cringed as she said it, not wanting to feel the wrath of his claws that she had so narrowly avoided just a few years ago.

"With the answer to the question you were asked."

"I'm human." She murmured, looking down because she knew he would be glaring, "Just human."

"Then is this how you've extended your life?"

"Is what…?" Kagome froze as her eyes dropped to his hand, to the keychain dangling from his fingertips and the orb glittering at her from under it. She moved without thinking, rushed forward with her hand extended, "Give that back!"

A large hand closed around her neck, nearly curling all the way around as it dragged her from her feet. Kagome attempted to scream, but the pressure wouldn't even let her breath. She knew that she should have been afraid, but more than anything she was just annoyed that she was being strangled again. And now that she thought about it rushing at him like that probably hadn't been the best of ideas. She gave up struggling against the hold almost instantly, knowing that it would only make him angrier. Instead she focused on keeping one eye open as he held her up, his fingers biting cruelly into her already bruised skin as he considered her. "You will answer my questions." He nearly growled.

"If… you'll… put me… down." She choked out, her hands coming up to pull at his as the grip tightened fractionally on her. Then she was unceremoniously released and found herself on the ground at his feet again. Absently she rubbed at her throat again, wondering what about the poor abused body part screamed squeeze me mercilessly. After a few deep gulps of air she looked back up at him, trying to gather what remained of her courage as she forced herself to climb to her feet, managing it slowly, shakily, but getting there all the same. "Can… can I at least have the jewel back? It isn't like you ever wanted it… anyway…?" She cringed away from the severity of his eyes, knowing that she was really pushing her luck here, but the jewel was what she had to worry about first, then she could consider an escape plan, but only once she had the jewel and could take it with her.

"You will tell me where you acquired it first."

"You know where I got it, you were there too. I mean it's been a while for you, but I doubt your memory ha…" She gulped as he growled and looked down, "I've had it since… we killed Naraku…"

"No human can exist that long."

"Well, it's sort of complicated…"

"My mind is not as feeble as yours human, you will explain."

"All right, but don't say I didn't warn you." She smiled, but it dropped as he continued to glare at her, "I was grabbed by a demon and pulled down a well into the past."

There was a long moment of silence before Kagome dared to glance back up at him. "Human, you are trying my patience."

"It's the truth I swear!" She held her hands up in front of her as if they were a shield, "It was my fifteenth birthday, and I went down into the well house to get my cat because my little brother was scared to go, and the jewel's power revived this centipede demon, and it grabbed me and… pulled me through the well." She cringed back a little, certain he was deciding the best way to kill her. She could just hear his thoughts. Poison claws or throw her out the window? Maybe I should transform and just eat her, but then I'd be stuck with the taste of human in my mouth, and of course there would be the damage to the room… however humorous they might have sounded later right now her take on what his thoughts might have been only served to terrify her further.

"In this scenario of yours where did you acquire this jewel to revive the centipede demon?"

Well at least his claws weren't glowing yet, but she couldn't tell if he believed her or was merely toying with her while he decided which way was best to destroy her, "Well, you see… being Kikyo's reincarnation… and since the jewel was burned with her body… or for whatever reason… destiny and all…"

"Cease your ramblings and answer." He almost seemed to be fighting the urge to roll his eyes or sigh at her.

"I was… it was in my body, I was born with it. I didn't even know I had it until she ripped it out of me." She stared at the ground, certain that any moment the ominous green light of prepared poison would glow around him, that she would barely hear a whisper of motion before she was dead, if even that much. "I… have the scar if you don't believe me… and how else could I be here and have been five hundred years in the past if I'm only human… and if I was going to lie I'd come up with a way better story…" The jewel hitting her in the stomach silenced her, sent her scrambling to catch it before looking up at him, confused as he turned away and strolled toward the far side of the room.

"You will keep your answers to the point human, should you continue to annoy me I will not see fit to spare your life again."

XXXXX

It was unlikely that she would have come this far, but Kurama didn't stop walking. If anything he was speeding up, whatever force was leading him had become a bit more urgent it seemed, or perhaps he was merely losing his patience with the silence. When he'd been with the others he'd been able to focus at least partially on his companions and their behavior, but now that he was looking alone the search was grating on his nerves and the part of his brain that wasn't occupied was free to search through his concerns and concoct horrible scenarios of what might have been happening to her while he and the others were wasting their time wandering the streets with no real idea of where, or plan of how to find her. He couldn't help wondering why a demon would have attacked her in the first place, had she simply been in the wrong place at the time, was it all that coincidental? Or did this have to do with the items he'd discovered in her room when she'd first arrived? They had appeared unchanged when he'd checked in the moments he'd been alone during one of their study sessions, but perhaps this was the reason she'd had them. After all, most demons were smart enough to keep from randomly attacking humans, it wasn't worth possibly calling down the wrath of the spirit detective and spirit world after all. And they didn't know why Kagome had come here really. Yusuke's mother had said something about her needing a change of scenery, and he'd known that Kagome had missed school due to an illness, or so she claimed. Was it possible she'd somehow become entangled with a demon of some kind and had attempted to run? Was it possible that whatever trouble had befallen her had caused her to come here in the first place?

Kurama shook his head and looked up. This was not the time to be puzzling through what might have been behind her sudden move. Just because there had been a demon didn't mean he should start drawing unfounded connections and conclusions. For now he needed to focus on Kagome. And again hoping that his instincts were leading him in the proper direction Kurama increased his speed.

XXXXX

She stared at the demon still considering her with his cold eyes, wondering what the next question would be. They had come rapidly at first, she'd barely finish her answer before he'd toss the next question at her. Now though he seemed to be thinking through the information and making his decision. Kagome sat as still as she possibly could, nearly holding her breath as she waited, hoping for some reason that he would believe her, or at the very least decide not to kill her. She hadn't volunteered any extra information, she really hadn't had time and it had seemed far wiser to just answer the questions he asked since stepping beyond that seemed to serve only to annoy him. She hadn't dared to ask any questions of her own, not yet since Kagome wasn't certain how far she would be able to push his patience in her search for information, and she didn't want to deal with the consequences of angering him.

A soft knock and the scrape of a door opening made her jump and nearly spin to face the door, but she forced herself to keep Sesshomaru at least partially in view, she wasn't certain that she could trust him enough to turn her back for even an instant, not that she could have stopped him if he was to try something she reminded herself.

"My lord, forgive the interruption, but I brought some water for your guest…" The young man smiled at her again, holding out a tall glass of clear liquid.

Kagome nearly scoffed. Guest? Well it probably sounded a lot better than hostage. If this was how Sesshomaru treated his guests she imagined that he never had much company. But instead of arguing her mental point any longer Kagome gladly accepted the offered glass, and much to the delight and anguish of her still sore throat began gulping to chilled water down. When she held out the empty glass the other human smiled at her, that too brilliant smile once again, and it finally struck her. She couldn't help staring at his back as he turned and left the room. Then slowly her eyes flashed back to those carefully guarded golden ones. "Is he… um… is he a descendant of Rin's?" She tipped her head away, almost not wanting to see what his reaction would be to the name of the child he'd cared for who would most certainly have passed by now. But she saw how his eyes narrowed slightly before returning to normal. They hadn't mentioned the girl earlier, Kagome hadn't even thought about her for a very long time, but she still wondered how she hadn't caught it right away, Sesshomaru's current companion looked so much like the girl she was certain was his ancestor.

For a long moment Sesshomaru only watched her coldly, then he tipped his head down slightly, "He is." He answered simply before turning slightly away, "Your tale makes no sense."

"Trust me I've been thinking that for a long time." She sighed and looked down as silence fell over them, it's weight crushing her toward the thickly carpeted floor, slowly seeping into her to make her squirm inside with discomfort. "Does that mean… you believe me?" She whispered finally, staring at the floor rather than him.

"I…"

His words were cut off by the sudden crash of shattering glass that made Kagome turn and cringe away from the splinters coming for her. She'd been closer to the window than he was, close enough that many of those sharp shards would easily reach her. She closed her eyes and threw her arms up to cover her face instinctively, nearly screamed when an arm closed around her waist and she was jerked violently to the side, her feet abandoning their hold on the floor. By the time she'd opened her eyes again she was standing on the opposite side of the room. Her wide eyes swept around her almost frantically for any evidence of what might have happened. She froze when they landed on a glinting blade, then on the black haired person holding the sword. "Hiei?"

* * *

_I just wanted to say Thank you to Pinkbismuth for all your help with this chapter, I don't know that it would have gotten posted without you. Oh, and happy birthday to lovingo0Kawaii0oGirl, as well as thanks to everyone who has reviewed and told me what you think, I love to hear your opinions. _


	15. Misunderstanding

He froze suddenly, his feet refusing to take another step for the moment as Kurama's eyes rose slowly toward the sky line somewhere ahead of him. He could practically see the energy crackling in the air, could nearly smell it. It took several moments for him to realize that the overwhelming force was actually that of two demons in very close proximity to each other, and from the violent feel of them it was about to be quite a battle.

The feeling of urgency returned, demanding that he move toward the fight that he knew was coming, a fight that his more rational thoughts were telling him to avoid at all costs, but his instincts, whatever force had been leading him before screamed over them, demanded that he see what was happening, that he find the source. Kurama consoled himself with the knowledge that once he found the demons preparing to kill one another he would at least know for sure that Kagome wasn't with them. He worried for a moment as he started forward that perhaps the fight would be over before he got there.

XXXXX

His eyes met hers and sent a chill down her spine. She'd never imagined seeing Hiei so… angry. Whenever she'd been around him his eyes had been carefully guarded, or at the most filled with some kind of flickering annoyance or amusement, something warm but still almost detached. Now the crimson depths she'd come to know over the last week were filled with what could only be described as rage, and it burned her just to look upon the fury of that emotion. For a moment she almost wondered what she'd done, but then he'd moved.

A hand grasped her chin forcefully, nearly hard enough to hurt as it forced her head up and to the side, revealing her neck, and the bruise that she knew would already be showing to his gaze. Kagome swallowed, preparing to explain, hoping that there would be a way to calm him. She didn't expect his hand to suddenly be wrenched away, throwing her off balance for a moment, or to look up and find long clawed fingers curled around a wrist that was smaller than the striped one the hand was connected to. Standing this close she could feel the wind bursts of their energy spiraling around her, saw how it buffeted Hiei's black hair, ruffled Sesshomaru's silver bangs. Their eyes locked in a frigid stare that sent shivers slowly over her, and the malice suddenly surrounding them both sent any trace of moisture running from her mouth and any thought of speech away from her brain, effectively freezing her in a way their icy eyes couldn't manage. This was going to be bad.

XXXXX

He closed the door with more force than was necessary, though he didn't actively admit taking out his frustrations on the apartment's doors and furniture, as far as Yusuke was concerned as long as he wasn't putting his fist through the wall the inanimate space should have considered itself lucky. Right now he had more important things to worry about than a broken couch leg and a bent doorframe.

Frustrated he turned away from her room that he had found empty after a careful search that included standing in the center of the room spinning in a circle and nearly shouting her name. Somewhere, she had to be somewhere, but then why couldn't he find her? Was this how Hiei had felt when Yukina had been missing? It was a wonder that the demon had accomplished anything at all in the time he hadn't been able to find her. Ever second was an eternity of panic and worry. Where was she? If she'd just been taking a walk he wouldn't have cared, but the alley… the body of that demon had been demolished in a way even he hadn't seen often, and Kurama said she was there… and making mistakes wasn't something that Kurama did often, if he claimed she'd been there when the demon died then she was there. Then where was she now? Wandering in shock because of what had happened? Or had something happened to her as well? What would he do if something had? Find it and kick its ass, that was a given, but what about Kagome?

"Yusuke calm down." Keiko grabbed his arm, keeping him from storming off to another room in search of his still missing sister, "You've already looked through every room, she isn't here."

"Then where the hell did she go? She was on her way here right? It's been hours since she left the arcade."

"I know Yusuke; maybe… maybe we should call the police or something?"

"Yeah what are we going to tell them? That a demon was killed and we think she was there? Yeah, that'll go over really well won't it?" Fuming still he began to pace the room again, waving his arms to himself as he ranted, "Hello Officer, I think my sister was attacked by a rabid demon, and possibly killed by whatever killed it…"

"Don't say that!" Keiko's shout stopped him suddenly, bringing his eyes to her, "She isn't dead."

"I didn't mean it like that Keiko." He glared at the floor by her feet, hating himself for saying the thought he'd been avoiding thinking, which he knew they were all avoiding as well. Kagome may not have been there long, may not have known all about their little group, but she got along with them all so well it was almost like she'd always been there, she wasn't just his sister, she was part of the group now. Hell, even Hiei seemed to like her a little, and that was nearly a sign of the apocalypse as far as he was concerned.

"We'd know if she was dead…" Keiko looked down, her eyes filled with unshed tears, "Botan… Botan is the grim reaper right? She knows Kagome; if something had happened to her she would have let us know."

"Yeah, you're right Keiko." He murmured because he didn't want to upset her, although he knew it didn't always work that way. Botan wasn't the only one after all, and if she was busy consoling or escorting Kagome's spirit they probably wouldn't hear about it right away. But it was a comforting thought.

"I know I am. So Kagome's just out there walking somewhere, and soon she'll be back and everything will be fine again." Keiko tried to smile, but it faltered on her lips before settling weakly into place.

"Hey… Urameshi…"

He jumped at the voice, having forgotten that they weren't alone since their friend had been so quiet, "Huh? What is it Kuwabara?"

"Do… Don't you feel that?"

XXXXX

They moved so quickly she couldn't really follow them, could only make out where they were once they had stopped for a split second, and even then she could only make out the briefest images before they were on the move again. The glass tinkled as their feet touched the splinters, only for them to easily be on the opposite side of the surprisingly large room before she'd fully heard the sound. Kagome cringed back from the air rushing around her, found that breathing was nearly impossible with how heavy the air had become around her, pushing with such force she was surprised the walls hadn't cracked yet.

How long had they been fighting, seconds? Hours? Kagome stared at them, trying to see evidence of the battle she knew was going on. The flashes of them that she could make out told her that much. Flashes of red, green, yellow, black, white, a trail of silver, a blue ball, the glint of a blade, her eyes blurred as she fought to clarify the images that vanished too quickly for her to fully make out. She watched as they dodged the blows of the others, Hiei's sword at Sesshomaru's throat even as the latter's glowing claws swiped at Hiei's, Sesshomaru's whip wrapped tightly around Hiei's sword as it was abandoned and a tight fist went for the former's midsection. How long had they been fighting now? Hours? Minutes? Seconds? Breaths? Heartbeats? The moments ticked by, both hungering for blood that they seemed unable to spill, and all Kagome could do was wonder why? Why were they even fighting in the first place? Why hadn't there been an exchange of words, why did they rush at each other like this? Why had Sesshomaru ripped Hiei away from her? Why had Hiei come bursting in through the window like that? Could he possibly know what had happened? Then why would he be angry with Sesshomaru for saving her?

She froze again, her eyes no longer following the clash taking place all around her. There was no explanation except that Hiei didn't know _what_ had happened. If he wasn't aware that something had he wouldn't have come looking for her, but if he thought that she was in trouble and that Sesshomaru was the one who did it then… maybe that could explain why her new friend, though she knew he wasn't likely to admit to being that, was attacking the demon that had in all actuality saved her life, for at least the second time. And as for Sesshomaru, he wasn't the type to let that sort of slight go; Hiei had challenged him by that overly dramatic entrance and was probably annoyed that he had been interrupted in the first place. So now that she had figured things out she was left with a new problem. How did she stop two bloodthirsty demons at least half bent on killing each other without getting killed in the process? Neither seemed like the type to welcome her intrusion in this.

Steeling her admittedly shaken courage Kagome straightened herself to her full height, which even compared to Hiei, who was a few inches shorter than her without his hair, was nothing impressive, and was of even less consequence when compared to Sesshomaru, who easily towered over her. Nearly holding her breath she moved toward the center of the room, hoping to gather their attention by moving away from the wall. The two seemed content to ignore her, flashing around still, coming within inches of her, but each attack miraculously missed her. For a moment she actually wondered if either of them was really serious about this, or if maybe they were holding back because of the number of people that were close to them. It was something neither of them would admit, would probably blatantly deny, but they wouldn't kill these people, at least not willingly, though she knew that Sesshomaru at least could cause far more mayhem than he seemed to be, and she suspected that Hiei was capable of similar destruction should the mood strike him. They could have easily leveled this building if they wished she was sure, but continued to simply punch and swipe at each other. She spun slowly in a circle, trying to follow them, her eyes searching for the spot where they would stop, but it was nearly impossible to pinpoint even which direction they were traveling in around the room.

Even she could detect the scent of blood, and the pungent sting of that poison wasn't something she was likely to forget. Kagome cringed a little and turned again, searching for the source only to find herself staring at a wall. Her eyes followed the warped, melting paint down, recognizing with horror that the red streaks mingled with it could only be blood. One of them had gotten hurt.

Maybe it was panic that called to her power, or maybe it was concern or fear, she didn't have time to analyze the response, to even think about it as the energy started to skitter over her skin, pooling in her palms momentarily before spreading over her again. She turned sharply, the world spinning and blurring with her momentum as she tried to find them. Hazarding a guess she threw herself forward, her eyes squeezed shut as she nearly prayed that she would come between them before someone was seriously injured.

The world stilled suddenly around her, the air seeming to fall dead around the room and energy that had been pushing on her vanished suddenly as she fell toward the ground. For a long moment she was stiff, waiting for what would happen, the stillness weighing mercilessly down on her until she could do nothing but crack her eyelids open.

Kagome gasped and recoiled, her eyes fixed on the glinting point of the sword barely an inch from her face. Her wide eyes remained glued to the blade for a long moment, blinded by the reflected light for a second before she fixed her attention to the wide red eyes staring at her from the end of the sword, then she followed his gaze to the arm curled past her, the hand closed around the blade, the gently trickling red liquid falling from his palm. Kagome gasped and turned to follow the arm to annoyed golden eyes, "Umm… are you okay?" She backed up barely a step as he withdrew his hand, considering the cut in his palm before glancing at her with obvious annoyance, a look that was echoed on Hiei's face when she turned to glance at him, "Um… I think there's been a little bit of a misunderstanding here…"

XXXXX

It was a hotel that he found himself staring up at, lights flickering on and off in the windows, but it was the one on the upper floor with the glass broken out that drew his attention. Whatever he had been sensing earlier was over now, and he marveled at everything that was left standing. Most fights he'd experienced that were anywhere near what had been happening here prior to his arrival had left at least a half leveled building, not just a broken window. He stood across the street where he could survey the building with more ease, his eyes sweeping the windows and exits for a sign of what could have caused the energy he'd been feeling.

"You're mad at me aren't you?"

The voice brought him quickly out of his thoughts and had his eyes dropping to the alley where two figures were appearing, two figures that he recognized in an instant even without their voices to aid him he would have known them.

"Oh, come on Hiei, it wasn't my fault." She was trailing behind by a few steps, her eyes glued to the demon pointedly looking away from her, "Come on, don't be mad. I already said I was sorry for not telling you sooner." She jogged a few steps forward, catching his arm even as they continued walking, "Hiei…"

"You are becoming far more trouble than you're worth." He grumbled suddenly, not bothering to pull his arm away from her.

"I know Hiei." She giggled a little and dropped his arm, "Oh… and thanks for coming to get me."

"It was nothing of the sort. I merely happened to be nearby."

"I know Hiei." She fell into step beside him, smiling a little, "Oh, and Hiei…"

"What is it now?"

"I told you we'd be friends."

Standing across the silent street Kurama stiffened further watching this little exchange, he waited for Hiei's biting retort, certain that he wouldn't accept hearing anyone tell him that. He was surprised when the fire demon merely stared at the girl with him, then turned away while rolling his eyes.

"Let's go."


	16. Aftermath

Green eyes swept longingly down the street, glazed over with want as they fulfilled partly the wish of their owner and followed the girl he was practically dreaming of going after. He wanted to follow her, wanted to brush this all off as coincidence and rejoice in her safe return. But his decision had been made when they'd come from this place, when he'd gone in search of those powerful, and very attention getting auras. But he wanted so badly to go after the girl. He already would have been, if he hadn't been actively forcing himself to remain where he was standing. Reluctantly, hesitantly he forced his eyes away from her and to the far less appealing sight of a shattered window near the top of the large building. That had something to do with it; glass didn't break out of its frame for no good reason. Any evidence as to what might have happened would be inside that broken window, and that was where he needed to go now. Finding out what had happened was important his thoughts assured him. He only hoped that Kagome's presence here had been just a coincidence that perhaps Hiei had been nearby and realized she was in danger when she was as well. He hoped that there was a reason for her to be here that had nothing to do with the dead demon that had been found in the alley only a short time that felt so long ago, he hoped that her being with Hiei was merely for her own safety, for however he might have denied it Hiei would protect the girl, whatever the relationship between them was, and he didn't want to get drawn into his ponderings on that subject at the moment. He hoped that she was as unharmed as she looked; he hoped she'd merely wandered off and gotten lost. Oh Kurama hoped a lot of things; he just wasn't enough of a fool to believe any of his hopes were reality without evidence.

XXXXX

"What is your problem now?" If she started crying he was going to leave, that was all there was to it. He did not currently have the remaining patience to deal with a crying girl. "You said that you were fine."

"I am." Kagome looked down a little, "Just… worried."

For a long moment he was silent, certain that she would tell him whether he wanted to know or not, normally she did. This time however she remained silent, and he felt his annoyance growing. He wasn't going to ask. He didn't care.

"Well?" He glared at her from the corner of his eye, waiting for the explanation that he'd been certain that he didn't want.

"It's just… I thought Sesshomaru would know what was wrong with Inuyasha, well I guess, I hoped he would." She stared down at her feet for a moment, "Once I knew he wasn't going to kill me I was hoping he would be able to tell me something about it, but…"

"You're still wasting your time on that?" He nearly rolled his eyes as he looked away, "If the fool can't help himself he doesn't deserve to be saved."

"Hiei… that's cruel."

"It's how the world works." He looked away from her, "Start thinking of ways to save yourself from him, instead of ways to save him from himself."

"No!" She stopped suddenly and turned to stare at him, "He's my friend Hiei. I have to help him, it's what friends do." She fixed her attention on his eyes even as he stared away from her. "It just isn't as easy as I was thinking it would be. Before answers just sort of came, but… now… I can't go back there, I don't even know when it started happening to him, and I can't ask Miroku or Sango, or anyone who might know. It's… frustrating."

"And you expected these answers to just fall into your hands? It's Pathetic."

XXXXX

Kurama chose not to dwell on several things as he crept along through the shadows of the alley. He chose not to dwell on how the stink of the dumpsters filled the air here, though it wouldn't have bothered him nearly as much if he hadn't possessed a heightened sense of smell. He chose not to think of Hiei and Kagome wandering away in the opposite direction, chose to ignore the continuing desire to follow them. What he did choose to focus on he deemed to be more important, though only for the moment. He had put himself in a potentially dangerous situation, though he hadn't realized it at the time, he hadn't known the demon's energy, not as he knew Hiei's or Yusuke's, how could he have, never having actually crossed paths with this infamous demon lord before? And however hard he tried he couldn't come up with an explanation for what Kagome been doing with him. Though not openly murderous to them it was no secret that he was not fond of humans. And it was likely a death wish to be following him now if he was caught. But even as he knew that he could not help following along the path, straining all of his senses for any sign of what might have passed happened moments before.

"My lord?" The human fallowing the tall man spoke almost hesitantly, but there was no real fear coming from him, "I hope you don't mind my asking, but how does that girl know you?" The question was met by only silence, "I wouldn't have asked except that… well… when you stopped the car so suddenly and demanded that we bring her with us I couldn't help wondering why… and with how she spoke to you… it seemed obvious that she at least knows of you, but I'm not sure how, I've been with you since my parents di… for nearly my whole life, and she's obviously younger than me…"

"That's enough Daisuke." The low voice was barely a whisper but carried easily through the small space of the alley. Kurama felt himself stiffen, at least partially certain that he'd been caught from the lack of response and the momentary silence, "That woman has no connection to myself, nor does the matter call for any further discussion."

"Yes my lord, but… well we haven't discussed it at all." The human paused, "She… my lord I understand that you don't want to talk about her, but she was asking for your help… shouldn't you help her?"

"No."

"But…"

"Daisuke, there is nothing even I could do to help her in this situation. Whatever that human has chosen to entangle herself in this time is none of my affair."

He watched from the shadows as the demon continued forward, the human called Daisuke stopped a few feet behind watching. The silence stretched, broken only slightly by the noises of the city at night in the distance. It was only a few seconds that seemed like nearly an hour, "My lord… who is Inuyasha?"

Sesshomaru stopped nearly mid-step, but did not turn back. "You were eavesdropping?"

"I… didn't intend to my lord, but I heard her say the name…"

Flicking his long hair back Sesshomaru turned slowly toward the human, "Inuyasha is no one for you to be concerned over and this is nothing to do with myself nor will I be pulled into it." Golden eyes flickered past the human for an instant into the shadows, "Come Daisuke, I've grown tired of this city." His hardened gaze burned into the darkness for an instant as if daring the shadows to do something and once the human began walking he turned with him and started walking as well leaving the alley in silence.

Kurama remained frozen for a moment under the scrutiny of yellow eyes that had turned away moments before then smiled ruefully to himself as he stood and stepped out of the darkened space he'd been attempting to conceal himself in. He should have known better than to think he'd be able to remain undetected. At this point he should consider himself lucky that he hadn't come to blows with the volatile demon who's reputation as a ruthless and indiscriminate killer was well known. It would appear Hiei hadn't been all that lucky, though Hiei would probably consider himself lucky to have gotten to fight him. It was a wonder with those two that they had both left alive, and with the building still standing. But there were more important things for Kurama to be thinking about now, which he quickly reminded himself and forced his brain into considering. How did Kagome know a demon like Sesshomaru, and who was this Inuyasha?

XXXXX

"Urameshi, we don't even know where we're going."

"We're going to find whatever the hell that was and Kagome, and if she happens to be near it, whatever it is, I'm gonna kill it. That good enough for you Kuwabara?" He turned a corner, pushing himself to go as quickly as he could, and not for the first time cursing himself for not keeping track of Kagome better. Why did she have to keep disappearing like this? Why couldn't he have a sister who just stayed out of trouble? But no, it was just his luck that he got the sister who liked to get lost in forests, and attacked in alleyways and just vanishing off the face of the earth.

He was kicking himself now, knowing that he should have watched her, but it had been so long since they'd had trouble, everything had been quiet for a while now, and he should have expected trouble to come, it always did, but… it was the energy signals they'd picked up that were bothering him now, those had been strong, and it worried him further that Kagome was out there, and if she had luck like his, which he was beginning to suspect she did, she was probably right in the middle of everything… and that was bad. He turned back over his shoulder to his friend, "Kuwabara pick it up, it's not like they're just standing around waiting for us." Something flickering in the corner of his eye, bringing his head around just as something collided with his body, slowing him as it flew backward. Nearly tripping over himself Yusuke skidded to a halt, barely keeping himself from falling forward onto his face.

"Hey… watch where you're go… Yusuke?" She blinked up at him from the sidewalk where she'd landed, "What are you doing out here?"

For a long moment he could only stare at her, relief washing through him to see her okay. It took a second for her question to register, about the same second that it took him to steel himself again, "What am I doing out here? What about you? I thought you were going home what are you doing out here wandering around in the middle of the night?" For a long moment they glared at each other, then Kagome climbed slowly to her feet.

"For your information Yusuke, I haven't been wandering around." She brushed at her clothes forcefully, knocking invisible dust away with force real dust wouldn't have warranted. She could already feel her temperature rising as her temper began to slip out of her control. "_I_ had plans tonight, it's not my fault that they were ruined, none of this was my idea."

"Kagome…"

"And it isn't like I even went looking for trouble… it always come to find me, and I get all the blame."

"What kind of trouble? What happened?"

"What happened? First…" She stopped herself with a mental slap. She'd done it now, another word and everything she'd been trying to keep him from finding out would have been spilled like a can of soda dropped on concrete, because this wouldn't have been one of those slips that could have been repaired, "It just hasn't been the best night okay."

"Yeah well whose fault is that? If you hadn't gone running off on your own…"

"Oh, and who was I supposed to go running off with? In case you'd forgotten Yusuke, you are the one who ditched me!"

"Yeah, well it was just a stupid party, nothing for you to get all mad about."

"A stupid…" She took a steadying breath trying to regain control of her slipping temper once again, "That's it… I'm going home." She pulled herself up to her full height and pushed her way between them before marching past them down the street.

He considered following her for a moment, but decided against it. Yusuke knew that his own temper was formidable, and that was something that he and his half sister shared. There were very few girls he was afraid of, not that he would ever admit it, but Kagome was one of them. The few glimpses he'd gotten of her angry were enough and he definitely didn't want to be squarely in that line of fire. He might not have been the brightest guy in the world, but he wasn't that stupid. There was someone he could question though, and however annoyed he might have gotten over it fighting with him wasn't something he minded that much. "Okay, Hiei, what the hell?"

_Sorry it's been so long since an update, the sight kept glitching out on me and wouldn't let me publish any new chapters. Yay it's working again. _


	17. Chapter 17 maybe

_Okay, so I know it's been forever, and some of you are probably pretty annoyed with me, but here's a new chapter so maybe you don't have to be. The problem is I have about five different options of which way I could take this and this is the one I've finally settled on. Now if any of you are disapointed with the turn or dislike it be sure to tell me, because if enough people dislike I can always take it down and try another twist on the plotline okay? So I'm asking for opinions, and I'll try to get the next chapter up a lot sooner than I got this one. _

Her breath left her in heavy puffs as she walked away, trying to decide if she was more angry with Yusuke or with herself. She really needed to start keeping better tabs on herself. One more near slip and they were going to find out about everything she was trying to keep concealed. And how would she explain everything then? Oh I just fell down a well and… yeah that one always worked out well. Sighing Kagome plunged her hand into her pocket smiling a little when her fingers brushed against the small plaque her grandfather had given her years before with a fake jewel attached. Her fingertips drifted over the engraved surface to the thin line connected, pausing for a moment to enjoy the smooth fibers of the string for a second before progressing to where the jewel would be. She shook her head and began her mental lecture. All this time and she hadn't thought to check for it, some guardian she was turning out to be, too worried about herself to even think about the jewel that they'd barely managed to get back, a jewel that could still cause any number of devastating disasters. She pinched the string between her thumb and pointer finger, loving the soft carefully woven strands she'd replaced her grandfather's string with when it had broken in her first attempt to replace the fake jewel with the real one. It had only taken a few after that for her to succeed. Sudden relief washing through her Kagome stopped in the ring of light provided by a street lamp and pulled the keychain from her pocket, wondering why she'd always thought it was so much heavier.

Her eyes widened as they examined the frayed end of the string and the nothing hanging from it.

XXX

He would have to do this quickly, the emergency personnel may have come and gone, but the investigators would be returning to do their jobs any time and that left him with only a small amount of time to do his own search of the demolished room to try to figure out exactly what had happened here.

He stooped to examine the drops of blood staining the carpet, barely able to pick out the smell of it enough to be able to tell it was a demon's, as far as he could tell his hopes had been realized and she at least had left this room unharmed. He couldn't help a tinge of relief as he stood, eyes scanning the rubble quickly as he did so, ears searching for anyone approaching. From what he could see Hiei was likely responsible for the wall, though he would probably never tell him why he'd done it. Whatever Hiei's connection to Kagome was it wasn't one he had been able to figure out yet, and Hiei wasn't about to explain himself about anything even to his friends, and he considered the use of the term loose. And he wasn't sure he wanted to hear what Kagome might tell him, the truth or more likely, the lie she would tell to keep it hidden.

His sharp eyes swept across the room quickly as he attempted to discern anything of importance among the scattered debris, but they found nothing but pieces of crumbling sheetrock still clinging to tattered wallpaper strewn across the carpet with the dully sparkling chunks of splinters of glass. Absently he moved toward the broken out window, listening to the engines in the distance, they would be arriving sooner than he'd expected. Sighing a little Kurama turned back to the room, letting his eyes sweep over it again in one final, nearly desperate search for clues. He wasn't sure exactly what he'd been expecting to find, truthfully he should have known that there would be nothing there, no taped recording of what had happened in the room earlier, no written transcription of whatever conversations might have been held. Actually searching the room had yielded him no new information at all.

He turned to the door preparing to leave only to be frozen in place as something sparkled at him out of the far corner, a glittering in the room's darkest space. With little hesitance he moved toward it, well aware of the fact that more investigators would be coming rapidly closer to the building he stood in, but also knowing that he could easily evade them if it came to that, which he doubted it would. There was something different about the glint meeting his eyes from this corner, it wasn't like the fragments of glass strewn across the floor, this was a softer light somehow and he could have been mistaken, he was sure he probably was, but he almost detected a pinkish tinge to the reflected light. Frowning a little to himself Kurama approached the corner, bending down a little as he twisted to allow the light past him into the darkened corner.

The small orb had sunk nearly half way into the tall, thick carpet fibers, leaving less than a third of its curved upper surface exposed to the room. He knew it almost instantly from the small crevice marring the glass smooth surface, the tiny crease in it darkened to a thin line of brownish red that still held a slight scent of blood, probably from where she'd cut her finger only a week ago. Had it only been that long? He could have sworn that Kagome had been around far longer than that. Kagome would definitely miss the stone, it seemed to mean a great deal to her, even if it was broken. The smooth surface was warm against his fingers as the tips brushed it and the tiny globe almost seemed to throb as it rolled into his palm. Kurama considered it closely for a moment. The glass in the center was clouded with a tint of pink and white that almost seemed to swirl inside the space, the colors almost seeming to shift and sparkle. He could nearly feel energy thrumming inside of it, radiating out as if into his arm, and he wasn't sure he liked it. This was certainly an odd little keepsake that she'd been carrying around. While he wanted to stare at it for a moment, consider the treasure he'd just discovered Kurama knew that he didn't have much longer to be standing around, already he could hear footsteps on the stairs at the end of the hall. He slipped through the door and rushed in the opposite direction, darting into the staircase at the far end of the hall just as the door opened allowing several men to come strolling into the hallway. Kurama watched them for a moment before smiling to himself as he turned to go down the stairs, congratulating himself on a painless and effortless escape.

XXXXX

Panic froze her in place as she stared at the dangling keychain and the string fluttering lightly in the wind that clawed at her with icy fingers.

Kagome wanted to hit her knees as she continued to stare helplessly at the broken key chain. She could feel her heartbeat rising, her veins wanting to burst in response to the equally rising pressure. Her muscles tensed instinctively, holding her rigidly in place as the keychain slipped from her fingers and clattered loudly on the floor. She forced herself into motion suddenly; digging frantically into her pockets, hoping that the string had snapped as she tried to remove it, that the jewel would be sitting harmlessly in her pocket, but as usual luck wasn't on her side. She repeated the actions, searching her pockets again and again only to continually run her fingers across the seams holding them together and nothing else.

She forced her brain to slow, silencing the hysterical thoughts rushing through her mind as she tried to steer them toward more useful pursuits. How long had the stone been gone? It couldn't have been long. Sesshomaru had given it back to her in the hotel room just after his questioning had started, so she had to have lost it between there and here. It was nothing to panic about; she would just walk back and find where she'd dropped it. It had probably been when she'd bumped into Yusuke. Yeah it must have fallen out when she'd hit the ground. Clinging to that reassuring thought Kagome turned to go back in search of the jewel, trying to steady herself enough to be able to sense the jewel wherever it had bounced or rolled away to. But it didn't seem to be anywhere near her. She may have been out of practice searching for the jewel, but it seemed to be flitting around the edges of her awareness, and no matter how she tried she couldn't seem t o figure out exactly where it was. That was when it vanished entirely.

XXXXX

There was something strange about this little decoration of hers. He'd assumed that he'd imagined the waves of energy that seemed to radiate from it, but the longer he held the thing the stronger that energy seemed to become. It was as if it was trying to absorb his energy, or force him to absorb the power it seemed to be giving off, he wasn't entirely certain which and it was somewhat disturbing to him. At first he'd assumed that it might have absorbed some of Kagome's energy, it was a treasured object of hers, and there was a chance that she'd unwittingly infused the jewel with her own spiritual energy over the time she'd been carrying it, but he'd felt her spiritual energy when it spiked, and this seemed different.

He watched the jewel closely as it sparkled half-heartedly in his palm, trying to see the waves of energy he could feel slowly peeling off of it. He couldn't make out anything but the reflected light being bent by the orb and reflected off of its glinting surface. He allowed his own energy to spike a little in an attempt to replace hers with his own, but as soon as he suppressed the force again the fractured crystal seemed to return to precisely the way it had been. Absently he tucked the item back into his pocket, deciding to wait for the proper moment to return it to her, Kagome surely would have missed it by now, but he wouldn't be able to return it to her directly without her possibly figuring out that he'd been following her, if she had known she had it with her in that room and he handed it to her she would have known he had been there as well.

XXXXX

Questioning Hiei had been pointless. The fire demon had only scoffed at him a few times, rolled his eyes once and then disappeared before actually saying anything. Yusuke was still grumbling as he walked down the sidewalk toward home, hoping that Kagome had actually gone home this time like she had seemed to be going. He didn't think he could handle another couple hours trying to find her. He was definitely going to have to watch her closer in the future, she had a tendency to disappear and worry most of them half to death. He wasn't even sure how he was going to find Kurama and tell him that she was safe and that he could stop looking. He figured he'd worry about that later, for now he was just planning on going home, maybe yelling at Kagome for a while, or apologizing for yelling at her, whichever mood suited him when he got there now that she should be safe, and then going to bed. Sleep certainly sounded like a great idea.

He rounded a corner headed for the straightaway that would lead to the building, looked up and froze. "Kagome…?" She was standing on the sidewalk with her back to him, staring at that stupid keychain of hers on the ground intently. He moved toward her, "Hey Kagome…" She remained stiff, her eyes only half open and staring unblinking at the ground. Absently Yusuke bent down, gathering the tag and string from by her foot and held it out, "Here, looks like you'll have to get a new one…"

"That's impossible…"

"I thought you're grandpa had boxes full of them…"

"Oh…" She blinked, "He used to, but they're all gone now, that was the last one…"

"That's too bad. Maybe it'll still turn up somewhere." He shrugged one shoulder, saw the way her eyes narrowed and her brows squished together, "We'll look tomorrow okay, let's just get going…"

"Yeah… sure…" She almost didn't follow him when he walked away, but something was interfering with her ability to sense the jewel and standing around wasn't going to do her any good. Kagome found herself chasing her thoughts as she walked silently. What had happened to the jewel? If she'd just dropped it why couldn't she sense it? Had Sesshomaru taken it maybe? But why would he, even in the feudal era he'd had no interest in the thing, and why would he have given it back to her if he was just going to steal it again? She knew that she didn't know Sesshomaru very well, but that didn't seem like his style. She hadn't been around anyone else who knew what the jewel was, or that she still had it, she hadn't even told Hiei that the jewel was still with her, she told him that she'd gathered it up and Inuyasha thought she did, but never confirmed it, and she definitely didn't want to think that the only friend she'd made here that knew about her adventures in the past would betray her like that. She couldn't think it. Hiei wouldn't have taken it from her like that, she was sure. But then where was it? Why couldn't she sense it? And so the loop began again.

Before she realized it Kagome was up the stairs, and on the third or fourth rotation of her thoughts as she followed Yusuke into the apartment, her eyes still on the ground, her brain frantically searching for any explanation for where the jewel could be.

"Kagome…" She turned toward the female voice only to pause as Keiko held out Yusuke's phone to her, "It's your mother…"

She was on auto-pilot as she walked over to the girl and accepted the receiver, bringing it to her ear, "Mom…?"

"Kagome thank goodness…" her mother's panicked tone was all it took to snap Kagome into reality, she couldn't even ask what was wrong before the world turned sideways and her stomach twisted as the bottom dropped out of it, "Sota's missing…"


	18. Upsetting news and troubling thoughts

She wanted to drop the receiver, but her fingers tightened painfully around it instead and for the fourth or fifth time that night Kagome's heart started racing. "What? What happened?"

"Then you haven't seen him?" The hysteria in her mother's voice rose another degree, "I thought… he asked for your address a few days ago, he said he was going to send you a letter. I… I thought when he didn't come home that he might have snuck off to go see you and…"

"I haven't seen him, but I just got home…" Kagome forced herself into action yet again, "I'll go look for him right now. If he's here I'll find him Mom, I promise…"

"I know you will Kagome, we'll be looking here too. I'll let you know if he shows up."

"I'll call you soon…"

"Oh Kagome, be careful it's late…"

"I will." Be careful, yeah because that always helped. She hung up the phone and wheeled toward the door, ready to run directly to the train station. If Sota had snuck away from home he would have come on a train and she had to find him.

"Kagome, what's wrong? She sounded really upset."

She ignored Keiko's question, not intentionally, but because she was busy trying to think of what to do next, where to check, where Sota would have gone. She didn't stop until she found her path through the door blocked by a tan arm and a white clad shoulder, "Yusuke, get out of my way."

"What's going on?" He demanded, crossing his arms to glare at her.

Kagome stared at him for a moment trying to rein in her temper that was being sparked by already short nerves. She may have wanted very badly to yell at him, but if Sota was out there she had to find him and if she'd learned anything from all of her time fighting with Inuyasha it was that getting into an argument would take up valuable time and keep her from accomplishing her goal. "It's Sota… he didn't come home tonight… Mom thinks he might have been headed here…"

There was a look of confusion, then shock and finally determination that went through his brown eyes that were so close to her own, so close to Sota's that it sent a pang of some unnamable feeling through her with the familiarity, "I know a short cut to the train station." He wheeled around, "Keiko, stay here and watch for the kid okay?"

"Kid? What's going on here, who's Sota?"

"He's my little brother." Kagome shrugged into the coat she'd left hanging by the door when she'd entered after Yusuke held it out to her, she would have been happy to leave it there the rest of the night.

"Little brother?" Keiko stared after them in shock as they rushed out the door, leaving her alone in the apartment again.

He took the stairs at a run, fuelled by panic for the little brother he'd never met, and was now worried that he might never. Kagome missing was one thing, she was roughly his age, should have been able to look after herself, even though he knew he should look after her too, and that he wasn't doing that good of a job. His first reaction might have been to blow up, to punch something, look for something to fight, but the second was guilt. Until earlier today he'd only thought about the little boy Kagome had told him about a few times, he was a little embarrassed to realize that he barely knew what the boy looked like, in fact hadn't immediately remembered his name. It didn't make him any less concerned though, if anything it made him more determined to find the boy before something happened to him, this little boy wasn't going to be going home with bruises and scrapes like Kagome had the last few times she'd mysteriously disappeared. Yusuke was new to being a brother, and so far his track record wasn't that great, but he wasn't the type to give up when it looked bad. He'd never had a family before, except his mother, and he didn't really count her, at least not most of the time anyway. Now that he had one he was going to look after it. He was just off to a slow start was all and he was going to make up for that now.

She didn't even feel the stairs beneath her feet as she made her way down them, too preoccupied with her thoughts to fully realize where she was going. Thankfully her body seemed to be more graceful on autopilot than under normal circumstances. She wanted to focus on the world around her, on looking for Sota, but she couldn't understand any of this. Sota wasn't the type to just take off, he never even went outside without telling their mother, as far as she knew he'd never even come home late from school without calling ahead. Sota was the reliable one. The one who did his homework, who was always home when he said, or could be found easily, he wasn't the one who disappeared randomly to have dangerous adventures, who brought dangerous demons home to his family. Sota was the good kid. Just disappearing, sneaking off from home wasn't something **he** would do. There had to be a reason, there had to be. She just hadn't figured it out yet, and she only hoped that Sota was behaving very out of character, because the alternatives, and the one in particular that she was dreading were so much worse. Children disappearing wasn't an entirely unheard of thing, there were abductions reported on the news all the time. But Sota knew better than to talk to strangers, than to wander off with people he didn't know. Kagome knew what it felt like to be kidnapped, the fear that clawed at you the entire time. If her little brother was going through that she was going to kill whoever did it, and she was not fond of violence.

But it was the other possibility that terrified her. The idea that she wished hadn't struck her, but had almost as soon as her brain had started working again. A single name had clashed like thunder through her brain. Inuyasha. She didn't want to think it, but an image was burned into the back of her eyes, a red clad, red eyed figure advancing on her confused little brother. If that had happened… if Inuyasha had had something to do with it, had done something to her little brother, Kagome didn't think she would survive it. She'd brought him there. Sure she hadn't thought he was dangerous, most of the time he seemed pretty nice to her family, even helpful part of the time, but lately he wasn't himself, and she'd known it, and she'd left, run away and left her family to deal with the half demon. He was Sota's hero. If Inuyasha had asked him to go somewhere Sota wouldn't have even put up a fight. And it would be entirely her fault.

She'd tried to leave them protected, but the sutras she'd put up to ward him off only blocked him from entering the house, there was nothing she could do to keep him from the area around the house. And there was no telling how long they might work anyway. As purpose and panic clashed inside of her Kagome looked up at last from the sidewalk, and broke into a run.

XXXXX

It had been quite a while since he'd been entranced by something in this way, with the exception of a certain girl he was still nowhere close to understanding. But the little orb in his hand had done a great job of capturing his attention. There was something strange about Kagome's trinket that he couldn't place. It continued to almost pulse against his palm, so faintly he was practically certain he was imagining it. The smooth surface changed constantly, warm one moment, cold the next, shifting through an irregular cycle he had yet to find any real pattern in. And Kurama was trying to. He'd been studying the thing constantly for the last half hour, not paying attention to where he was wandering as he did so, a habit of his for some time that he'd fallen back on recently.

It had the feel of something he would have hunted once. Ancient Treasures had been his specialty after all; he'd learned to recognize them easily. This must have been something more than the simple keepsake Kagome believed it to be, perhaps her grandfather had passed her a family heirloom and not told her, or more likely had told her to keep it secret. She did live in a shrine after all, plenty were kept by families through the years, and relics could be passed through the generations as well as the shrine itself. Most of those relics were junk now though, replicas or simply kept for sentimental purposes or because they happened to look old or impressive in some way. This bauble was differently a find, it was almost a shame he would have to find a way to get it back to her, it would have been a nice addition to the collection he still kept hidden away. But Kagome never seemed to go anywhere without it, and he'd found her preoccupied with the little gem more than once. When she realized it was gone if she hadn't already, he was certain she would be very upset.

It was the steady staccato of running feet breaking the silence that finally brought his attention away from the jewel resting harmlessly in his palm and back to the street around him. It took only a moment for his sharp ears to discern that there was only one person, and that the runner was coming directly toward him and showing no signs of stopping.

"Hey Kurama!"

He tucked the newly acquired treasure into his pocket as he turned toward the taller boy rushing toward him, "Kuwabara, what are you doing on the street this time of night?"

"I've been looking all over for you man…" He slumped slightly as he gasped for breath, catching his side, "I thought you should know we found Kagome…"

"That was very thoughtful of you, but you shouldn't have bothered. I saw her earlier with Hiei. I'm glad to know she made it home safely."

"Then what are you doing out here still?"

"Oh… just thinking…" He found his hand going unintentionally into his pocket, his fingers brushing across the smooth surface of the crystal resting there until he found the sharp edge of the crack in it. "I'm sorry for having kept you out, you should go home and get some rest…"

"Nah, I couldn't sleep anyway. You mind having some company?"

He would have preferred to wander alone with his thoughts, but dismissing his friend so suddenly would have been extremely rude and possibly given Kuwabara the wrong impression that something was bothering him, a mistaken idea that would have surely found its way back to Yusuke and by association Kagome and caused him far more trouble than he needed. She wasn't the type to let those sorts of things go. "Of course not, but I haven't a set route…"

"That's okay." He fell into step beside the only one of his friends that was even close to his height, "What are you thinking about anyway?"

"Nothing in particular."

They continued on, their steps loud against the otherwise silent street.

XXXXX

She was breathing hard as she skidded to a halt beside him on the empty platform. Almost frantically her eyes began searching for any signs of life and found nothing in the dim circles of yellow light provided by flickering bulbs along the platform's length. "He isn't here…" She whispered, struggling to pull enough air into her lungs to speak, "This isn't good… This IS NOT good." She turned in a circle, searching anxiously for him as panic began to set in again.

"Kagome calm down already." He gave her a slight glare, "standing around here freaking out isn't going to do any good. We'll just have to keep looking." He turned sharply back the way they'd come, "Let's see if there's anyone at the ticket booth that's seen him. The kid doesn't know his way around town he'll have to have asked for directions or get a map or something…"

He wouldn't have. Kagome's eyes quickly found the ground again as she accepted reality. Sota wasn't here. Sota wouldn't have just run away from home. No Inuyasha had to have taken him. They could search all night, but they wouldn't find anything. Not until Inuyasha came to find her with whatever ransom demand he'd come up with, and she was certain of what the ransom would be. The jewel in exchange for Sota, the problem was she didn't have the jewel anymore. She would have to come up with something else.

"Kagome, let's get a move on! You're wasting time standing around here gawking!" Yusuke's scream normally would have had her snapping to her own defense, but instead Kagome found herself turning back to him.

"You're right…" She couldn't reveal what was happening to Yusuke, she didn't have time to explain everything, not to mention she'd gotten to know her half brother pretty well over the last few weeks, and he would definitely try to fight Inuyasha. She couldn't allow that. Sure against humans Yusuke might be tough, he seemed to have a lot of stories about getting into fistfights, and he claimed to have won them all, people around here certainly seemed wary enough of him, but against a half demon like Inuyasha he wouldn't stand a chance. She couldn't put both of her brothers in danger, Kagome simply wouldn't let it happen. She only hoped that Inuyasha would wait until she was alone to cause trouble. Then she would just have to find a way to slip away from Yusuke unnoticed and find the jewel. If she had to trade the jewel for Sota, and in the process likely trade her own life for her younger brother's Kagome knew she would do it. She couldn't let Sota suffer for her mistakes. She could only hope she had the chance.


	19. The Truth of The Matter

She stared at the ground for another long moment, chewing thoughtfully on the side of her pointer finger. Yusuke was still searching, almost frantically, but despite his nearly violent resolve that accompanied all the yelling Kagome knew he was wasting his time. She'd sorted all the arguments, and everything in her head told her that Inuyasha had taken Sota, and that any minute now he would be coming to find her and tell her so, to demand the jewel from her. The problem was this time she really didn't have the jewel. So even if she was willing to trade it for Sota she couldn't.

Her previous efforts at finding the jewel hadn't been nearly this desperate, but despite all of her concentration being focused purely on the task Kagome still couldn't sense the jewel anywhere. If it had just been laying on the ground somewhere she should have been able to find it easily, but if she couldn't that had to mean someone had it and whoever it was must have known what it was and been hiding it somehow. That was disturbing enough, but now that she actually needed the stupid thing it was far beyond her grasp. And she was sure an irrational and clearly unstable half demon would be coming after her looking for the jewel any time now. There was no telling what he would do when she told him, particularly if he still thought she was lying, which she was sure he would. And Sota would be right in the middle.

Her panicked brain could only come up with one option now that the jewel was once again beyond her grasp, and that was looking hopeless too. If she wanted to save Sota and she didn't have the jewel her only choice now was to face Inuyasha on her own and hope she could at least distract him long enough for her little brother to get away from him. She knew there wasn't much of a chance that she could beat Inuyasha in a real fight, but she might be able to slow him down a little, distract him for a few minutes. After all she was the one Inuyasha was really after, once he had her he should completely lose interest in Sota. It didn't sound like fun, in fact she was dreading it completely, but it was the only choice she had left. Talking sense into him hadn't worked in the past, and she was pretty sure it wouldn't now.

"Kagome are you even listening to me?"

"Hmm…" She dropped her hand to her side to meet her brother's annoyed gaze, "Sorry Yusuke." She shook her head and looked away from him, "I've just been thinking maybe we should split up and keep looking… we'll have a better chance of finding Sota if there's two of us looking in different places right?"

"Hell no." His annoyed look turned into a glare, "You've already disappeared on me once today and one missing sibling is enough thanks. So I'm not letting **you** out of my sight. And don't even think about trying to talk me out of it because it isn't going to do you any good."

"Yusuke! I'm not some helpless kid you know! I can handle walking around town on my own." She crossed her arms to glare away from him.

"Yeah sure you are." He met her look squarely as she turned toward him again, "If you think a little glare is going to change my mind you're wrong. I've spent way too much time around Keiko for that to work."

Her previously narrowed eyes widened dangerously as Kagome held her breath, feeling her temperature rise as her muscles tensed against her will. She hadn't wanted a fight, she'd just wanted to make the suggestion and have him accept it. She should have known her half brother wouldn't make things that simple. Most of the time they got along well enough, but she knew Yusuke had a tendency to be difficult. Why couldn't he be more like Sota and just do what she told him? As the thought echoed through her mind a pang of guilt and concern broke through her building anger, puncturing it easily until she was melting inwardly. "I don't want to fight with you Yusuke. If we want to find Sota splitting up is our best chance. We can cover twice as much ground in half the time… or don't you want to find him?" She demanded harshly, hating herself as she saw the look that flashed over his face before he could hide it. Concern and guilt, just like her. She hated making him feel that way, hated that she was in reality lying to him, but… she had to do this, and she had to do it alone or Yusuke would get sucked into everything too. So far she'd managed to keep him and Inuyasha apart, then at least one brother was safe, and if she got her way soon the other would be too.

"Yeah all right." He crossed his arms to watch her for a moment, refusing to meet her eyes, "but we're meeting back home in an hour and if you aren't there on time there'll be hell to pay do you understand me Kagome?"

She knew it was an idle threat, but it still irked her. However exercising a little control that she was admittedly normally a little short on Kagome held her tongue and nodded, fixing a false smile on her face. "Oh don't worry about that. I'll be home in one hour just like you said." She turned, "I'll go this way okay? See you at home…"

Yusuke stared after her for a moment with narrowed eyes. She was being just a little too happy, like Botan when she had a secret she didn't feel like sharing, and since when did Kagome just swallow his orders and go along with them? He'd learned the hard way over the short time that he'd actually known her that a temper was something they shared, and control over it was another thing they both had in short supply. Honestly he'd kind of been looking forward to relieving some of the stress by arguing with her, and he'd seen the spark of it in her eyes for a second. The fact that it had vanished so quickly had him worried. Kagome must have been more torn up over not knowing where Sota was then he'd thought to be acting so out of character. He was almost worried about letting her go. If she had a few other things in common with him Yusuke had a feeling that she might actually do something stupid. He had the feeling, but couldn't place it. What stupid thing could she possibly do? It must have just been because he hadn't been able to find her earlier that he was worried about letting her out of his sight now, that was why watching her run away was so hard.

"Snap out of it Yusuke, it's not like you aren't ever going to see her again." He turned away from where she was running and shook his head. A sister was something you were stuck with for life, good or bad, just like any other family member. Kagome would be back and he could needle her then about where she'd been and make her start acting like herself again. Once they found the kid everything would be back to the way it should have been.

XXXXX

It was Kuwabara who broke the silence first, clearing his throat loudly to get his companion's attention before he spoke. "So you said you saw Kagome with Hiei too huh?"

"Yes, I believe he was walking her home."

"So what do you thinks going on with those two? I mean it's like every time she takes off somewhere they turn up together, and a couple times I could have sworn I heard them talking in her room in the middle of the night."

These were thoughts he'd pondered many times. Hiei was not the most social of people, frankly he seemed rather fond of solitude, but he did seem to be spending a great deal of time with Kagome, who never actually mentioned their time together, though he also never asked, "Truthfully I haven't any idea. I suspect that Kagome has won him over somehow, though I doubt we will ever learn of the complexities of their relationship."

"You don't think they're… you know… together or something?"

Another of those questions he'd been attempting to avoid asking himself, it left a sour twisted sensation in his stomach to even consider. "It is a possibility I suppose, but there would be signs, Hiei is somewhat territorial … Not to mention his sense of superiority and dislike of humans in general…"

"Yeah I guess you're right…" Kuwabara looked down at the sidewalk, "I bet Kagome just managed to make friends with him somehow, she's good at that."

"Yes, she seems to be." In only a matter of a week the girl had managed to instigate herself into all of their lives, and in only a few she had become an integral part of them. Kagome's charm certainly worked quickly.

He nearly didn't hear it over his thoughts, such a soft sound he was half certain he might have imagined it until it was repeated, diverting his attention from the taller young man to the shadows of the distant corner and a small figure standing in them.

XXXXX

She had to have gone far enough, and as far as she could tell Yusuke wasn't following her. Kagome came to a stop, staring at the dark ground at her feet as she tried to finish talking herself into what she knew she had to do. But for some reason all she could see was Inuyasha's face giving her that smug smile that accompanied a victory, or that concerned look he hadn't always been able to hide. She couldn't help thinking about everything they'd gone through together since she'd unpinned him from the tree and broken the jewel, all of their stupid adventures. "Oh Inuyasha… I wish I knew what was wrong with you… I wish… I wish it hadn't come to this between us…" The desire to fall to her knees was almost overwhelming, but Kagome forced her legs to hold her body up. She couldn't stop the tears welling in her eyes from falling free though, and she couldn't keep her voice from braking a little as she stared at her feet, "I wanted to help you, I would have done anything to. I still would if only…" She closed her eyes against the tears, letting them fall unheeded down her cheeks, "Sota… don't worry I'll get you out of this. I promise…" She was silent for a few moments before wiping her cheeks with the backs of her hands, "Here I am blubbering like a baby when this is all because of me. Get it together girl, you can handle this." She whispered before squaring her shoulders and forcing her eyes up from the ground, "Okay Inuyasha, if you wanted me so bad here I am. I'm waiting for you."

XXXXX

She heard the running footsteps before she realized there was anyone near where she'd been standing for she wasn't sure how long now, but she guessed from her numb legs that it had been a long time since she'd moved. Even she could tell there was more than one person coming toward her, so it was incredibly unlikely that Inuyasha was one of them. Still she didn't want to be caught off guard. Yusuke had warned her about wandering around alone enough and after earlier, well she wasn't an idiot after all. Forcing her legs to let her turn was a little more difficult than normal, but she ignored the painful tingling sensation motion caused even once she was facing the dark street behind her.

Kagome felt herself stiffen as the thundering footsteps came closer, her eyes narrowing in the attempt to see into the shadows. She'd chosen her defensive position badly, she'd been hoping that on a street corner Inuyasha would have less of a chance to sneak up on her than if she picked someplace with trees, those were some of his favorite places to hide after all and he would have an even greater advantage if she'd gone someplace with a lot of them. But this street corner, what had she been thinking she couldn't see more than a few feet. Oh well, there was no point running now they were nearly on top of her.

"Kagome… we've finally found you." Red hair and green eyes appeared in the dimness and a sigh of relief left her as the voice tumbled into her ears.

"Shuichi… you scared me for a second there." She couldn't help smiling at his apologetic look, "Were you looking for me for something?"

"Not I exactly…" He turned a little as another shape melted out of the darkness behind him.

"Hey Sis…"

XXXXX

"So let me get this straight. You just decided to leave home without telling anyone?" She couldn't help that her voice was rising, both in tone and volume, "You aren't even supposed to go across town alone! What were you thinking? Do you have any idea how worried we were about you?"

"Come on Sis, it's not like that…" Sota flinched a little from the glare his older sister fixed on him, "Well it's not I just…"

"Lied to your mother and got on a train to a city you don't know. Do you have any idea what could have happened to you?" Yusuke exploded, halting his annoyed pacing across the living room behind Kagome to pin the kid down with the daggers his eyes were throwing. "What are you some kind of idiot?"

"Hey take it easy Yusuke, he's just a kid." Kagome glanced at him over her shoulder, ready to turn on Sota again the second he made the mistake of opening his mouth.

"It doesn't matter; he's old enough to know better that to do something so stupid!"

"I said take it easy!"

"What you get to yell at him and I don't?"

"Of course; I'm his older sister; yelling at him and keeping an eye on him are my job." She crossed her arms and turned her face away, tipping her nose up huffily.

"Yeah, well I'm his older brother and it's my job to kick his stupid ass when it does something stupid, so you're lucky I'm not pounding him into the pavement."

"Yusuke!"

"Kagome!"

"If I may interject…"

"Stay the hell out of this Kurama!"

"Don't yell at Shuichi, he didn't do anything wrong. Without him we may never have found Sota."

It never failed to amaze him how she so easily ignored the different name they called him, clearly having dismissed it as only a nickname, though she hadn't asked directly about it now that she'd figured out he was who they meant by Kurama. While he realized between these two in a fight was a dangerous place to be he knew there would only be more trouble if he allowed the argument to progress. "Neither of you seem to be seeing the bigger picture here. Your brother has returned safely so there is no further need for concern." He smiled at the little boy who was practically trembling under his older siblings' wrath, "And I believe Sota has learned his lesson haven't you?"

"Yeah… you bet I have…" Sota stood and caught his sister's sleeve, "I thought I'd get here before anyone missed me, I didn't mean to worry anyone. So don't be mad at me okay Sis? I just wanted to come see you and meet Yusuke…"

About to shake him off so she could finish her argument with Yusuke before finishing dealing with the younger brother Kagome froze, a look of surprise flashing across her face before it softened considerably, her eyes nearly sad as they met her younger brothers. "Oh… Sota…" She dropped quickly to her knees, wrapping her arms tightly around him, "I'm not mad, not really. You just really scared me is all. I thought something terrible had happened to you." Of course he wanted to meet Yusuke, he'd never had an older brother and since she'd come here, since they'd found out Sota had done nothing but ask about him. She'd wanted to keep him away, thinking if she kept distance between this family and the one back home Inuyasha wouldn't find her at first, and then when he had that Sota and their mom and grandpa would be safer that way. She hadn't even let him talk to Yusuke on the phone. She hadn't realized she'd been so cruel to him. How could she have done it? Keeping him from his brother now that he knew he had one… "I'm sorry Sota, I should have let you come visit a long time ago. Can you forgive me?"

"What?" Sota sprung back from her, "But I'm the one who ran away and got lost… you're right I did something really dumb…"

"But Shuichi's right, you learned your lesson and your safe and that's what matters. So let's just forget about it for now okay?" She smiled as she ruffled his hair.

"Kagome… are you feeling alright?"

She smiled, "Sure I am Sota."

"Yeah well she may have forgiven you, but I haven't. I spent all night looking for you because you decided to be an idiot." Yusuke crossed his arms to glare at the pair, but it was halfhearted at best. He could understand after all, he'd wanted to meet the kid too, maybe if he'd been more insistent about it the brat wouldn't have done something so impulsive and reckless. Inwardly Yusuke smiled. Impulsive and reckless, maybe they were more alike than he'd thought they would be. It only took a glance at the boy for the mild annoyance lingering in place of his previous anger to vanish. "Just don't ever do something so dumb again, Okay kid?"

"Don't worry, I won't." Sota smiled a little, "So I brought some quarters, and I passed an arcade on the way here with Kagome, do you want to go play some games?"

Yusuke blinked for a moment, "Sure kid, but don't think I'm gonna go easy on you."

"Not to spoil your fun, but don't you think it's kind of late?"

"Oh come on Kagome, tomorrow's Saturday, let the kid have some fun before we send him home."

She knew she was going to have trouble now. They both had the same puppy dog eyes, and knew how to use them. Kagome sighed, "Fine I'll call mom and let her know you're okay, but you get to call and explain yourself tomorrow," They turned and ran for the door as soon as her resolve wavered, neither willing to stand around in case she changed her mind at the last second, "Do you understand me Sota?" She sighed when her call received no answer. "Geez all that trouble and I don't even get a goodbye, what am I chopped liver? Give a Kid a big brother and the sister goes right out the window."

A chuckle escaped him at her pouting tone, "You should know that when Kuwabara and I found him we offered to bring him to Yusuke, but Sota was very insistent on finding you first."

"Really?" She glanced at him quickly, eyes wide with surprise.

"I think on his list of priorities you rank above Yusuke."

She smiled a little, before turning and without thinking catching him around the waist, "Thanks Shuichi, I don't know what I would have done if something had happened to him." She murmured into his chest.

His surprise was pushed aside quickly and he found his arms already settling around her, his eyes closing to allow his other senses to savor the moment despite the slight sting of salt from tears he knew she was trying to keep from falling, "Think nothing of it. I am glad I could return him safely."


	20. Early Morning Chances

Yusuke Urameshi was on a mission. Not the kind he got from Koenma, but the type of personal mission that he really took to heart. The basic goal of said mission was to remain asleep no matter what stimulus was used to try waking him. And he was doing a fantastic job of it, much to the annoyance of his sister.

Kagome hadn't been much of a morning person… ever. Even after years of practice she was still groggy being up at this time of the day, but Yusuke and Sota were definitely worse. After nearly twenty minutes of yelling, tickling, poking, she'd even smacked him a few times, she'd finally been forced to give up on waking Yusuke from where he'd passed out on the couch. She couldn't be nearly as physical with the younger brother, who seemed to have the same ability to completely ignore her and sleep through a demon centipede stampede.

She sighed and adjusted her hold on the boy dangling from her arms as his head lolled against her shoulder with an almost painful impact. "Come on Sota… I can't carry you all the way to the train station…" She ran her hands into his hair, rubbing at his scalp viciously, only to be rewarded by a soft snore and no resistance from the boy still hanging limply from her, "Wake up will you? We're going to miss the train! It's the only one all day…" Well at least before really late, as it was she was going to spend most of the day on the train, she didn't want to spend the night there. And she didn't have any more time to waste. "Sota…!"

Groaning in annoyance she dropped him onto the couch, hoping it would shock him into waking, which of course it didn't. Wondering why she wasn't able to sleep like these two Kagome turned to walk back into her room, swinging her backpack onto her shoulders, listening to the now familiar dull thwack of her books hitting each other as they hit her back. Her return to the living room yielded no welcome new developments, revealing only that Sota had fallen over against Yusuke's arm.

"Well since neither of you is going to work with me here… and I can't carry both of you…" She bent, struggling a little to scoop Sota back up, bracing him against her shoulder as she wrapped her arms around his back to hold him up, "Looks like you get to stay home Yusuke…" She paused to look at him, "yeah I know… you're just heartbroken." Sighing again she turned to the door, resolved to call and give him a piece of her mind later when he was conscious enough to appreciate it.

Thankfully the elevator was working, and the hand rail extended far enough from the wall that she could rest part of Sota's weight against it and give her already tiring arms a rest, "I can't believe how much heavier you've gotten…" She grumbled, stumbling to get through the front door and onto the street with full hands and an off-kilter load as Sota shifted against her in his sleep. "Come on Sota… you're already making me carry you; you could at least make it easy on me." She almost panted as he tipped away from her, nearly throwing them both to the pavement before she could adjust to prevent it. She'd been wrong to think this would be only a little difficult. It was now bordering on nearly impossible. Sota twisted again, probably in an attempt to find a comfortable position, and nearly went toppling out of her arms and onto the sidewalk. With a quiet squawk of surprise Kagome jumped again, dragging him miraculously back to her again. "Hold Still Already." She hissed harshly, tightening her arms around him again in a new attempt to keep the boy from moving.

The person who dared to chuckle received her most menacing glare, not that his green eyes lost any of the amusement that danced in them when hers found them. "Are you just going to stand there laughing at me or are you going to help?" She demanded, her lost patience causing her to snap although she knew the redhead didn't deserve her attitude. She would have to remember to apologize to him later right now she just had her hands full… literally. It didn't help that he just stood there, watching her with wide eyes, "Fine." Turning she adjusted her hold on the boy again, one backpack strap dropping down her arm to elbow, the load shifting again to throw her balance even more off as Sota dipped dangerously back again, forcing her to lean back and slam him into her chest. She was definitely going to have bruises tomorrow. She really hoped her brat of a brother appreciated all the trouble she was going to for him when he woke up. Though she knew he probably wouldn't see it that way.

A hand caught her shoulder, halting her progress. "I didn't mean to annoy you; it was simply a humorous sight… I couldn't help myself."

Kagome sighed, deflated now, "I know, I'm sorry I snapped at you Shuichi, I was just… flustered I guess." She tried to smile over a yawn, and to her joy succeeded at least partially, "What are you doing here anyway? Aren't you exhausted you only went home a few hours ago?" Yusuke and Sota had stayed out surprisingly late, and he'd been kind enough to keep her company the whole time, claiming that he wasn't tired anyway, and that since she would be up waiting there was no need for her to do so alone.

"I came to see you off, but as you need assistance I would be happy to offer mine." Before she could respond he'd taken Sota from her arms and placed him easily against his own shoulder, giving her one of those little half smiles he flashed so often.

"Thanks, but I can get him… there's no need for you to…"

"You all but demanded my help earlier." He pointed out.

"I already explained that."

"Where is Yusuke?" He asked, smiling a bit at her embarrassed flush.

"I couldn't get him to wake up. I swear these two could sleep through anything."

Kurama couldn't help smiling at that. If she only knew, but it wasn't a story he planned to be telling her any time soon. That was Yusuke's business, and if he hadn't seen fit to tell his sister about all of their adventures then it wasn't his place to tell her of it first. He could understand why Yusuke seemed to be so determined to protect her from that, Kagome with her big brown eyes and bright smiles seemed like the kind of girl you had to protect, but his mind went back to the strange items in her dresser, her energy that seemed so vaguely familiar and the demon she'd been in the company of only a short time ago. There was something to this, something more than coincidence. Perhaps this was his chance to figure out some of what had been eluding him. "Then you plan to go all the way there and back by yourself?"

"Well… yeah, I guess." She paused to shrug, trying to settle her backpack into place, "I brought my books to do some studying on the way home, so it's not like I won't have anything to do."

"It's still a rather long journey. Would you allow me to keep you company in Yusuke's absence perhaps?"

She paused mid-step, turning to look at him. "Oh…I'm sure you have something better to be doing all day…"

He paused as well, looking away as if thinking it over before turning back to her, "I can think of nothing else that would require my time today."

"But… I couldn't ask you to give up your Saturday to sit with me on a train."

"If you don't want my company Kagome you only have to say so."

She looked almost panicked meeting his eyes, hers wide "No it's nothing like that. I would… I would really like it if you came, I just… I don't want you to feel like you have to…"

He stifled a bit of a chuckle, "I offered because I wished to come with you."

"Oh… thank you."

"It's nothing."

XXX

He glanced at the girl sleeping against his arm and couldn't help smiling. She'd practically collapsed into the seat after settling her younger brother in the one across from them, the late night and early morning clearly taking their toll on her from the shadows beneath her eyes and how quickly she'd actually fallen asleep once the train had finally started moving. He'd waited to be sure she was deeply asleep before searching her backpack, ignoring the unusual pang of guilt at this invasion of her privacy, something he normally wouldn't have felt. He'd found nothing of interest, instead had borrowed a book she'd been reading to pretend he was focusing on something as his hand ran over the small bag in his pocket, the special seals on the outside hiding it's energy pulse even from him, just as he'd intended for it to. There was something about the little jewel currently in his possession that made it easily identifiable to demons, he'd been cornered by a few shortly after finding the thing, how Kagome had managed to hide it was beyond him, another of the annoying things he did not know about her. He knew that he should return the trinket, but somehow he wasn't sure he wanted to. He had yet to decide if it was because he felt she was safer without it, or if he wanted to keep it just until he figured out exactly what it was. Either way, he had no intentions of keeping it permanently, eventually he would give it back to her, or more likely leave it somewhere she would find it, that seemed a little less suspicious and he didn't want her suspecting he'd taken it, another thing he wasn't entirely certain of his reasons for, and surprisingly Kurama wasn't the least bit interested in analyzing his own motives at the moment. That would wait for later. He was going to the shrine, and hopefully some of his questions could be answered there.

_I know it's super short, but I decided to split what would have been one chapter in two because I was having trouble working the rest of it out, I liked this part so I figured why not put it up?_


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